Multicellularity in animals: The potential for within-organism conflict
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Standard
Multicellularity in animals : The potential for within-organism conflict. / Howe, Jack; Rink, Jochen C.; Wang, Bo; Griffin, Ashleigh S.
In: PNAS, Vol. 119, No. 32, e2120457119, 2022.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Author
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - Multicellularity in animals
T2 - The potential for within-organism conflict
AU - Howe, Jack
AU - Rink, Jochen C.
AU - Wang, Bo
AU - Griffin, Ashleigh S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2022 the Author(s).
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Metazoans function as individual organisms but also as “colonies” of cells whose single-celled ancestors lived and reproduced independently. Insights from evolutionary biology about multicellular group formation help us understand the behavior of cells: why they cooperate, and why cooperation sometimes breaks down. Current explanations for multicellularity focus on two aspects of development which promote cooperation and limit conflict among cells: a single-cell bottleneck, which creates organisms composed of clones, and a separation of somatic and germ cell lineages, which reduces the selective advantage of cheating. However, many obligately multicellular organisms thrive with neither, creating the potential for within-organism conflict. Here, we argue that the prevalence of such organisms throughout the Metazoa requires us to refine our preconceptions of conflict-free multicellularity. Evolutionary theory must incorporate developmental mechanisms across a broad range of organisms—such as unusual reproductive strategies, totipotency, and cell competition—while developmental biology must incorporate evolutionary principles. To facilitate this cross-disciplinary approach, we provide a conceptual overview from evolutionary biology for developmental biologists, using analogous examples in the well-studied social insects.
AB - Metazoans function as individual organisms but also as “colonies” of cells whose single-celled ancestors lived and reproduced independently. Insights from evolutionary biology about multicellular group formation help us understand the behavior of cells: why they cooperate, and why cooperation sometimes breaks down. Current explanations for multicellularity focus on two aspects of development which promote cooperation and limit conflict among cells: a single-cell bottleneck, which creates organisms composed of clones, and a separation of somatic and germ cell lineages, which reduces the selective advantage of cheating. However, many obligately multicellular organisms thrive with neither, creating the potential for within-organism conflict. Here, we argue that the prevalence of such organisms throughout the Metazoa requires us to refine our preconceptions of conflict-free multicellularity. Evolutionary theory must incorporate developmental mechanisms across a broad range of organisms—such as unusual reproductive strategies, totipotency, and cell competition—while developmental biology must incorporate evolutionary principles. To facilitate this cross-disciplinary approach, we provide a conceptual overview from evolutionary biology for developmental biologists, using analogous examples in the well-studied social insects.
KW - development
KW - evolution
KW - multicellularity
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2120457119
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2120457119
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 35862435
AN - SCOPUS:85134855122
VL - 119
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
SN - 0027-8424
IS - 32
M1 - e2120457119
ER -
ID: 322632181