Phylotranscriptomics points to multiple independent origins of multicellularity and cellular differentiation in the volvocine algae.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The volvocine algae, which include the single-celled species Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the colonial species Volvox carteri, serve as a model in which to study the evolution of multicellularity and cellular differentiation. Studies reconstructing the history of this group have by and large relied on datasets of one to a few genes for phylogenetic inference and ancestral character state reconstruction. As a result, volvocine phylogenies lack concordance depending on the number and/or type of genes (i.e., chloroplast vs nuclear) chosen for phylogenetic inference. While multiple studies suggest that multicellularity evolved only once in the volvocine algae, that each of its three colonial families is monophyletic, and that there have been at least three independent origi

SUBMITTER: Lindsey CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8408923 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature