Minor variations in multicellular life cycles have major effects on adaptation.

ABSTRACT: Multicellularity has evolved several independent times over the past hundreds of millions of years and given rise to a wide diversity of complex life. Recent studies have found that large differences in the fundamental structure of early multicellular life cycles can affect fitness and influence multicellular adaptation. Yet, there is an underlying assumption that at some scale or categorization multicellular life cycles are similar in terms of their adaptive potential. Here, we consider this possibility by exploring adaptation in a class of simple multicellular life cycles of filamentous organisms that only differ in one respect, how many daughter filaments are produced. We use mathematical models and evolutionary simulations to show that despite the similarities, qualitatively different

SUBMITTER: Isaksson H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10156057 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature