Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23577233›Full record

ArticleeLife2013

Improved use of a public good selects for the evolution of undifferentiated multicellularity.

John H Koschwanez, Kevin R Foster, Andrew W Murray

Open access · goldAbstract readComparative Study
In one paragraph

Article in eLife, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 83 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
83citing papers in PubMed
8.6field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

83 citing papers in PubMed, 148 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
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  7. Behavioural ecology in the twenty-first century.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025
    Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
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  16. Multicellular growth as a dynamic network of cells.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
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  20. Article

23 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

John H KoschwanezFAS Center for Systems Biology and Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology , Harvard University , Cambridge , United States.
Kevin R Foster
Andrew W Murray
Center for Systems Biology · USHarvard University · USUniversity of Oxford · GB

Funding

THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF FUNCTIONAL MODULESP50GM068763 · NIGMS · HARVARD UNIVERSITY · PI ELOWITZ, MICHAEL B · 2003 to 2012
$28.9M
Enzyme secretion as a cooperative behaviorK25GM085806 · NIGMS · HARVARD UNIVERSITY · PI KOSCHWANEZ, JOHN H · 2008 to 2010
$324k
NIGMS NIH HHS GM06873NIGMS NIH HHS K25GM085806NIGMS NIH HHS P50 GM068763
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We do not know how or why multicellularity evolved. We used the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to ask whether nutrients that must be digested extracellularly select for the evolution of undifferentiated multicellularity. Because yeast use invertase to hydrolyze sucrose extracellularly and import the resulting monosaccharides, single cells cannot grow at low cell and sucrose concentrations. Three engineered strategies overcame this problem: forming multicellular clumps, importing sucrose before hydrolysis, and increasing invertase expression. We evolved populations in low sucrose to ask which strategy they would adopt. Of 12 successful clones, 11 formed multicellular clumps through incomplete cell separation, 10 increased invertase expression, none imported sucrose, and 11 increased hexose transporter expression, a strategy we had not engineered. Identifying causal mutations revealed genes and pathways, which frequently contributed to the evolved phenotype. Our study shows that combining rational design with experimental evolution can help evaluate hypotheses about evolutionary strategies. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00367.001.

Indexed as

Evolution, MolecularAdaptation, Physiologicalbeta-FructofuranosidaseBiological TransportCell DivisionGene Expression Regulation, FungalGenotypeHydrolysisMonosaccharide Transport ProteinsMutationPhenotypeSaccharomyces cerevisiaeSaccharomyces cerevisiae ProteinsSucrosebeta-FructofuranosidaseMonosaccharide Transport ProteinsSaccharomyces cerevisiae ProteinsSucroseEvolution of cooperationExperimental evolutionMulticellularityS. cerevisiae

Identifiers

PMID23577233
PMCPMC3614033
OpenAlexW2136936220

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.