Experimental evolution of an alternating uni- and multicellular life cycle in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

ABSTRACT: The transition to multicellularity enabled the evolution of large, complex organisms, but early steps in this transition remain poorly understood. Here we show that multicellular complexity, including development from a single cell, can evolve rapidly in a unicellular organism that has never had a multicellular ancestor. We subject the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to conditions that favour multicellularity, resulting in the evolution of a multicellular life cycle in which clusters reproduce via motile unicellular propagules. While a single-cell genetic bottleneck during ontogeny is widely regarded as an adaptation to limit among-cell conflict, its appearance very early in this transition suggests that it did not evolve for this purpose. Instead, we find that unicellular propagules are ad

SUBMITTER: Ratcliff WC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3831279 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature