ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2016
Stabilizing multicellularity through ratcheting.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Adaptive evolutionary trajectories in complexity: Transitions between unicellularity and facultative differentiated multicellularity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Individuality Through Ecology: Rethinking the Evolution of Complex Life From an Externalist Perspective.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Fundamental constraints to the logic of living systems.Interface focus · 2024Review
- Stability of ecologically scaffolded traits during evolutionary transitions in individuality.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Genomic sequencing reveals convergent adaptation during experimental evolution in two budding yeast species.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Group-selection via aggregative propagule-formation enables cooperative multicellularity in an individual based, spatial model.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Molecular patterns and processes in evolving sociality: lessons from insects.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Minor variations in multicellular life cycles have major effects on adaptation.PLoS computational biology · 2023Article
- Article
- Loss-of-heterozygosity facilitates a fitness valley crossing in experimentally evolved multicellular yeast.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- The Consequences of Budding versus Binary Fission on Adaptation and Aging in Primitive Multicellularity.Genes · 2021Article
- Article
- Evolution of altruistic cooperation among nascent multicellular organisms.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2019Article
- Caspases maintain tissue integrity by an apoptosis-independent inhibition of cell migration and invasion.Nature communications · 2018Article
- Multicellular survival as a consequence of Parrondo's paradox.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Article
- Nascent life cycles and the emergence of higher-level individuality.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Nomadic-colonial life strategies enable paradoxical survival and growth despite habitat destruction.eLife · 2017Article
- The major synthetic evolutionary transitions.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
The evolutionary transition to multicellularity probably began with the formation of simple undifferentiated cellular groups. Such groups evolve readily in diverse lineages of extant unicellular taxa, suggesting that there are few genetic barriers to this first key step. This may act as a double-edged sword: labile transitions between unicellular and multicellular states may facilitate the evolution of simple multicellularity, but reversion to a unicellular state may inhibit the evolution of increased complexity. In this paper, we examine how multicellular adaptations can act as evolutionary 'ratchets', limiting the potential for reversion to unicellularity. We consider a nascent multicellular lineage growing in an environment that varies between favouring multicellularity and favouring unicellularity. The first type of ratcheting mutations increase cell-level fitness in a multicellular context but are costly in a single-celled context, reducing the fitness of revertants. The second type of ratcheting mutations directly decrease the probability that a mutation will result in reversion (either as a pleiotropic consequence or via direct modification of switch rates). We show that both types of ratcheting mutations act to stabilize the multicellular state. We also identify synergistic effects between the two types of ratcheting mutations in which the presence of one creates the selective conditions favouring the other. Ratcheting mutations may play a key role in diverse evolutionary transitions in individuality, sustaining selection on the new higher-level organism by constraining evolutionary reversion.This article is part of the themed issue 'The major synthetic evolutionary transitions'.
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