A nonadaptive explanation for macroevolutionary patterns in the evolution of complex multicellularity.

ABSTRACT: "Complex multicellularity," conventionally defined as large organisms with many specialized cell types, has evolved five times independently in eukaryotes, but never within prokaryotes. A number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain this phenomenon, most of which posit that eukaryotes evolved key traits (e.g., dynamic cytoskeletons, alternative mechanisms of gene regulation, or subcellular compartments) which were a necessary prerequisite for the evolution of complex multicellularity. Here, we propose an alternative, nonadaptive hypothesis for this broad macroevolutionary pattern. By binning cells into groups with finite genetic bottlenecks between generations, the evolution of multicellularity greatly reduces the effective population size (Ne) of cellular populations, increas

SUBMITTER: Bingham EP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10873551 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature