ArticleThe American naturalist2018
Multicellularity Drives the Evolution of Sexual Traits.
Article in The American naturalist, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Evolution, Development, and the Incoherence of Sex: A Framework for Multiple Sex Concepts.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- There Are Only Two Sexes and There Can Never Be More.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- KDM5C is a sex-biased brake against germline gene expression programs in somatic lineages.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Fossil-calibrated molecular clock data enable reconstruction of steps leading to differentiated multicellularity and anisogamy in the Volvocine algae.BMC biology · 2024Article
- A Reinvestigation of Multiple Independent Evolution and Triassic-Jurassic Origins of Multicellular Volvocine Algae.Genome biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Hermaphroditic origins of anisogamy.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Gene loss during a transition to multicellularity.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The Curious Case of Multicellularity in the Volvocine Algae.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Review
- Switching it up: algal insights into sexual transitions.Plant reproduction · 2021Article
- Degree of anisogamy is unrelated to the intensity of sexual selection.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Parthenogenesis and the Evolution of Anisogamy.Cells · 2021Article
- Phylotranscriptomics points to multiple independent origins of multicellularity and cellular differentiation in the volvocine algae.BMC biology · 2021Article
- Multicellularity and sex helped shape the Tree of Life.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Article
- A comparative test of the gamete dynamics theory for the evolution of anisogamy in Bryopsidales green algae.Royal Society open science · 2021Article
- Review
- Superorganismal anisogamy: queen-male dimorphism in eusocial insects.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Volvox and volvocine green algae.EvoDevo · 2020Review
- Transmissible cancer and the evolution of sex.PLoS biology · 2019Article
- Multicellularity Drives the Evolution of Sexual Traits.The American naturalist · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
From the male peacock's tail plumage to the floral displays of flowering plants, traits related to sexual reproduction are often complex and exaggerated. Why has sexual reproduction become so complicated? Why have such exaggerated sexual traits evolved? Early work posited a connection between multicellularity and sexual traits such as anisogamy (i.e., the evolution of small sperm and large eggs). Anisogamy then drives the evolution of other forms of sexual dimorphism. Yet the relationship between multicellularity and the evolution of sexual traits has not been empirically tested. Given their extensive variation in both multicellular complexity and sexual systems, the volvocine green algae offer a tractable system for understanding the interrelationship of multicellular complexity and sex. Here we show that species with greater multicellular complexity have a significantly larger number of derived sexual traits, including anisogamy, internal fertilization, and secondary sexual dimorphism. Our results demonstrate that anisogamy repeatedly evolved from isogamous multicellular ancestors and that anisogamous species are larger and produce larger zygotes than isogamous species. In the volvocine algae, the evolution of multicellularity likely drives the evolution of anisogamy, and anisogamy subsequently drives secondary sexual dimorphism. Multicellularity may set the stage for the overall diversity of sexual complexity throughout the Tree of Life.
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