ArticleBiology letters2024
Metabolic complementation between cells drives the evolution of tissues and organs.
Article in Biology letters, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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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.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Linking tissue morphology and tissue healing in a cell-fate model.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Article
- A New Classification Framework to Understand Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Refined ChIP-Seq Protocol for High-Quality Chromatin Profiling in Solid Tissues Using the Complete Genomics/MGI Sequencing Platform.Current protocols · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Although evolutionary transitions of individuality have been extensively theorized, little attention has been paid to the origin of levels of organization within organisms. How and why do specialized cells become organized into specialized tissues or organs? What spurs a transition in organizational level in cases where the function is already present in constituent cell types? We propose a hypothesis for this kind of evolutionary transition based on two features of cellular metabolism: metabolic constraints on functional performance and the capacity for metabolic complementation between parenchymal and supporting cells. These features suggest a scenario whereby pre-existing specialized cell types are integrated into tissues when changes to the internal or external environment favour offloading metabolic burdens from a primary specialized cell type onto supporting cells. We illustrate this process of 'supra-functionalization' using the nervous system and pancreas.
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