ArticleBiology letters2015
A model for the origin of group reproduction during the evolutionary transition to multicellularity.
Article in Biology letters, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cell division timing shapes the morphology and size of nascent multicellular organisms.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Minor variations in multicellular life cycles have major effects on adaptation.PLoS computational biology · 2023Article
- Aggregative cycles evolve as a solution to conflicts in social investment.PLoS computational biology · 2021Article
- Group and individual selection during evolutionary transitions in individuality: meanings and partitions.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Ecological scaffolding and the evolution of individuality.Nature ecology & evolution · 2020Article
- Operationalizing evolutionary transitions in individuality.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Selection for synchronized cell division in simple multicellular organisms.Journal of theoretical biology · 2018Article
- Modeling functional specialization of a cell colony under different fecundity and viability rates and resource constraint.PloS one · 2018Article
- Stabilizing multicellularity through ratcheting.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
- Viruses and mobile elements as drivers of evolutionary transitions.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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Abstract
During the evolution of multicellular organisms, the unit of selection and adaptation, the individual, changes from the single cell to the multicellular group. To become individuals, groups must evolve a group life cycle in which groups reproduce other groups. Investigations into the origin of group reproduction have faced a chicken-and-egg problem: traits related to reproduction at the group level often appear both to be a result of and a prerequisite for natural selection at the group level. With a focus on volvocine algae, we model the basic elements of the cell cycle and show how group reproduction can emerge through the coevolution of a life-history trait with a trait underpinning cell cycle change. Our model explains how events in the cell cycle become reordered to create a group life cycle through continuous change in the cell cycle trait, but only if the cell cycle trait can coevolve with the life-history trait. Explaining the origin of group reproduction helps us understand one of life's most familiar, yet fundamental, aspects-its hierarchical structure.
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