ArticleNature communications2016
The Gonium pectorale genome demonstrates co-option of cell cycle regulation during the evolution of multicellularity.
Article in Nature communications, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 78 papers.
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Who cites it
78 citing papers in PubMed, 156 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Unveiling microbial communities and biogeochemical cycles in Antarctic colored snow.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Cell division timing shapes the morphology and size of nascent multicellular organisms.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The Evolutionary and Ecological Consequences of Cooperation.The American naturalist · 2026Review
- Field strains of the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii exhibit multicellular characteristics that shape their interactions.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Knock Down ofPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Genetic Predisposition Toward Multicellularity in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Functional analysis of regA paralog rlsD in Volvox carteri.The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology · 2024Article
- Fossil-calibrated molecular clock data enable reconstruction of steps leading to differentiated multicellularity and anisogamy in the Volvocine algae.BMC biology · 2024Article
- Chapter 5: Major Biological Innovations in the History of Life on Earth.Astrobiology · 2024Article
- Different transcription of novel, functional long non-coding RNA genes by UV-B in green algae, Volvox carteri.International microbiology : the official journal of the Spanish Society for Microbiology · 2024Article
- Genomics and transcriptomics reveal β-carotene synthesis mechanism inFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Aberrant light sensing and motility in the green algaPlant signaling & behavior · 2023Article
- MarFERReT, an open-source, version-controlled reference library of marine microbial eukaryote functional genes.Scientific data · 2023Article
- Article
- Evolution of phenotypic disparity in the plant kingdom.Nature plants · 2023Article
- Multicellularity and the Need for Communication-A Systematic Overview on (Algal) Plasmodesmata and Other Types of Symplasmic Cell Connections.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Cell Type-Specific Promoters ofGenes · 2023Article
- Bacteria evolve macroscopic multicellularity by the genetic assimilation of phenotypically plastic cell clustering.Nature communications · 2023Article
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
22 authors at 10 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The transition to multicellularity has occurred numerous times in all domains of life, yet its initial steps are poorly understood. The volvocine green algae are a tractable system for understanding the genetic basis of multicellularity including the initial formation of cooperative cell groups. Here we report the genome sequence of the undifferentiated colonial alga, Gonium pectorale, where group formation evolved by co-option of the retinoblastoma cell cycle regulatory pathway. Significantly, expression of the Gonium retinoblastoma cell cycle regulator in unicellular Chlamydomonas causes it to become colonial. The presence of these changes in undifferentiated Gonium indicates extensive group-level adaptation during the initial step in the evolution of multicellularity. These results emphasize an early and formative step in the evolution of multicellularity, the evolution of cell cycle regulation, one that may shed light on the evolutionary history of other multicellular innovations and evolutionary transitions.
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