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167 results for “Multicellularity”
Data from: De novo origins of multicellularity in response to predation
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Data from: Genetics of a de novo origin of undifferentiated multicellularity
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Multicellularity and sex helped shape the Tree of Life
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Mutation of rpoB shifts the nutrient threshold triggering Myxococcus multicellular development
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Phylotranscriptomics points to multiple independent origins of multicellularity and cellular differentiation in the volvocine algae
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Adaptation to viscous Snowball Earth Oceans is a path to complex multicellularity
<p>Animals, fungi, and algae with complex multicellular bodies all evolved independently from unicellular ancestors. The early history of these major eukaryotic multicellular clades, if not their origins, co-occur with an extreme phase of global glaciations known as the Snowball Earth. Here, I propose that the long-term loss of low viscosity environments due to several rounds global glaciation drove the multiple origins of complex multicellularity in eukaryotes and the subsequent radiation of complex multicellular groups. Under this scenario, life adapts to Snowball Earth oceans by evolving large size which acts to compensate for high viscosity seawater and maintain fluid flow at sufficient levels. Warm, low viscosity seawater returned with the melting of the Snowball glaciers and with it, by virtue of large multicellular bodies, new ways of life were unveiled.</p>
Data from: Does high relatedness promote cheater-free multicellularity in synthetic lifecycles?
The evolution of multicellularity is one of the key transitions in evolution and requires extreme levels of cooperation between cells. However, even when cells are genetically identical, non-cooperative cheating mutants can arise that cause a breakdown in cooperation. How then, do multicellular organisms maintain cooperation between cells? A number of mechanisms that increase relatedness amongst cooperative cells have been implicated in the maintenance of cooperative multicellularity including single cell bottlenecks and kin recognition. In this study we explore how relatively simple biological processes such as growth and dispersal can act to increase relatedness and promote multicellular cooperation. Using experimental populations of pseudo-organisms, we found that manipulating growth and dispersal of clones of a social amoeba to create high levels of relatedness was sufficient to prevent the spread of cheating mutants. By contrast cheaters were able to spread under low relatedness conditions. Most surprisingly, we saw the largest increase in cheating mutants under an experimental treatment that should create intermediate levels of relatedness. This is because one of the factors raising relatedness, structured growth, also causes high vulnerability to growth rate cheaters.
Data from: Transition from one- to two-dimensional development facilitates maintenance of multicellularity
Filamentous organisms represent an example where incomplete separation after cell division underlies the development of multicellular formations. With a view to understanding the evolution of more complex multicellular structures, we explore the transition of multicellular growth from one to two dimensions. We develop a computational model to simulate multicellular development in populations where cells exhibit density-dependent division and death rates. In both the one- and two-dimensional contexts, multicellular formations go through a developmental cycle of growth and subsequent decay. However, the model shows that a transition to a higher dimension increases the size of multicellular formations and facilitates the maintenance of large cell clusters for significantly longer periods of time. We further show that the turnover rate for cell division and death scales with the number of iterations required to reach the stationary multicellular size at equilibrium. Although size and life cycles of multicellular organisms are affected by other environmental and genetic factors, the model presented here evaluates the extent to which the transition of multicellular growth from one to two dimensions contributes to the maintenance of multicellular structures during development.
Data from: The costs and benefits of multicellular group formation in algae
The first step in the evolution of complex multicellular organisms involves single cells forming a cooperative group. Consequently, to understand multicellularity, we need to understand the costs and benefits associated with multicellular group formation. We found that in the facultatively multicellular algae Chlorella sorokiniana: (1) the presence of the flagellate Ochromonas danica or the crustacean Daphnia magna leads to the formation of multicellular groups; (2) the formation of multicellular groups reduces predation by O. danica, but not by the larger predator D. magna; (3) under conditions of relatively low light intensity, where competition for light is greater, multicellular groups grow slower than single cells; (4) in the absence of live predators, the proportion of cells in multicellular groups decreases at a rate that does not vary with light intensity. These results can explain why, in cases such as this algae species, multicellular group formation is facultative, in response to the presence of predators.
Data from: The ecological advantage of sexual reproduction in multicellular long-lived organisms
We present a model for the advantage of sexual reproduction in multicellular long-lived species in a world of structured resources in short supply. The model combines features of the Tangled Bank and the Red Queen hypothesis of sexual reproduction, and is of broad applicability. The model is ecologically explicit with the dynamics of resources and consumers being modelled by differential equations. The life history of consumers is shaped by body-mass dependent rates as implemented in the metabolic theory of ecology. We find that over a broad range of parameters sexual reproduction wins despite the twofold cost of producing males, due to the advantage of producing offspring that can exploit underutilized resources. The advantage is largest when maturation and production of offspring set in before the resources of the parents become depleted, but not too early, due to the cost of producing males. The model thus leads to the dominance of sexual reproduction in multicellular animals living in complex environments, with resource availability being the most important factor affecting survival and reproduction.
Data from: Experimental evolution with a multicellular host causes diversification within and between microbial parasite populations – differences in emerging phenotypes of two different parasite strains
Host-parasite coevolution is predicted to have complex evolutionary consequences, potentially leading to the emergence of genetic and phenotypic diversity for both antagonists. However, little is known about variation in phenotypic responses to coevolution between different parasite strains exposed to the same experimental conditions. We infected Caenorhabditis elegans with one of two strains of Bacillus thuringiensis and either allowed the host and the parasite to experimentally coevolve (coevolution treatment) or allowed only the parasite to adapt to the host (one-sided parasite adaptation). By isolating single parasite clones from evolved populations, we found phenotypic diversification of the ancestral strain into distinct clones, which varied in virulence towards ancestral hosts and competitive ability against other parasite genotypes. Parasite phenotypes differed remarkably not only between the two strains, but also between and within different replicate populations, indicating diversification of the clonal population caused by selection. This study highlights that the evolutionary selection pressure mediated by a multicellular host causes phenotypic diversification, but not necessarily with the same phenotypic outcome for different parasite strains.
Data from: Pluripotency and the origin of animal multicellularity
\A widely held—but rarely tested—hypothesis for the origin of animals is that they evolved from a unicellular ancestor, with an apical cilium surrounded by a microvillar collar, that structurally resembled modern sponge choanocytes and choanoflagellates. Here we test this view of animal origins by comparing the transcriptomes, fates and behaviours of the three primary sponge cell types—choanocytes, pluripotent mesenchymal archaeocytes and epithelial pinacocytes—with choanoflagellates and other unicellular holozoans. Unexpectedly, we find that the transcriptome of sponge choanocytes is the least similar to the transcriptomes of choanoflagellates and is significantly enriched in genes unique to either animals or sponges alone. By contrast, pluripotent archaeocytes upregulate genes that control cell proliferation and gene expression, as in other metazoan stem cells and in the proliferating stages of two unicellular holozoans, including a colonial choanoflagellate. Choanocytes in the sponge Amphimedon queenslandica exist in a transient metastable state and readily transdifferentiate into archaeocytes, which can differentiate into a range of other cell types. These sponge cell-type conversions are similar to the temporal cell-state changes that occur in unicellular holozoans5. Together, these analyses argue against homology of sponge choanocytes and choanoflagellates, and the view that the first multicellular animals were simple balls of cells with limited capacity to differentiate. Instead, our results are consistent with the first animal cell being able to transition between multiple states in a manner similar to modern transdifferentiating and stem cells.
Raw Image Data Multicellular Clusters
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Multicellularity and fossilization of soft bodies
<p>The reliability of evolutionary reconstructions based on the fossil record critically depends on our knowledge of the factors affecting the fossilization of soft-bodied organisms. Despite considerable research effort, these factors are still poorly understood. In order to elucidate the main prerequisites for the preservation of soft-bodied organisms, we conducted long-term (1-5 years) taphonomic experiments with the model crustacean Artemia salina buried in five different sediments. The subsequent analysis of the carcasses and sediments revealed that, in our experimental settings, better preservation was associated with the fast deposition of aluminium and silicon on organic tissues. Other elements such as calcium, magnesium and iron, which can also accumulate quickly on the carcasses, appear to be much less efficient in preventing decay. Next, we asked if the carcasses of uni- and multicellular organisms differ in their ability to accumulate aluminium ions on their surface. The experiments with the flagellate Euglena gracilis and the sponge Spongilla lacustris showed that aluminium ions are more readily deposited onto a multicellular body. This was further confirmed by the experiments with uni- and multicellular stages of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. The results lead us to speculate that the evolution of cell adhesion molecules, which provide efficient cell-cell and cell-substrate binding, probably can explain the rich fossil record of soft-bodied animals, the comparatively poor fossil record of non-skeletal unicellular eukaryotes, and the explosive emergence of the Cambrian diversity of soft bodied fossils.</p>
Data from: How do algae form multicellular groups?
Background: Theory suggests that how groups are formed can be a major influence on the evolution of cooperation, and whether cooperative groups make the major transition to a higher level individual. The formation of clonal groups, by remaining with parents (subsocial group formation) leads to a greater kin selected benefit of cooperation, compared with formation of groups by aggregating, with potential non- relatives (semisocial). Freshwater algae form multicellular groups in response to the presence of predators, but it is not clear whether they form groups by remaining together (subsocial) or by aggregation (semisocial). Organisms: The freshwater algae Chlorella sorokiniana, Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus obliquus, and the freshwater crustacean predator Daphnia magna. Results: Fluorescence microscopy and time-lapse photography revealed that, in response to predator supernatant/live predators, these algae form groups both subsocially and semisocially. Additionally, different algal species form mixed-species multicellular groups in response to predation. Conclusion: The observation of semisocial, and even between species, group formation in these facultatively multicellular algae: (i) emphasises the direct fitness benefits of forming groups to avoid predation; and (ii) strengthens the across species correlation between the method of group formation and whether multicellularity is facultative or obligate.
Data from: Diminishing-returns epistasis among random beneficial mutations in a multicellular fungus
Adaptive evolution ultimately is fuelled by mutations generating novel genetic variation. Non-additivity of fitness effects of mutations (called epistasis) may affect the dynamics and repeatability of adaptation. However, understanding the importance and implications of epistasis is hampered by the observation of substantial variation in patterns of epistasis across empirical studies. Interestingly, some recent studies report increasingly smaller benefits of beneficial mutations once genotypes become better adapted (called diminishing-returns epistasis) in unicellular microbes and single genes. Here, we use Fisher's geometric model (FGM) to generate analytical predictions about the relationship between the effect size of mutations and the extent of epistasis. We then test these predictions using the multicellular fungus Aspergillus nidulans by generating a collection of 108 strains in either a poor or a rich nutrient environment that each carry a beneficial mutation and constructing pairwise combinations using sexual crosses. Our results support the predictions from FGM and indicate negative epistasis among beneficial mutations in both environments, which scale with mutational effect size. Hence, our findings show the importance of diminishing-returns epistasis among beneficial mutations also for a multicellular organism, and suggest that this pattern reflects a generic constraint operating at diverse levels of biological organization.
Multicellular factor analysis of single-cell data for a tissue-centric understanding of disease
<p>Collection of auxiliary data to reproduce the results from "Multicellular factor analysis of single-cell data for a tissue-centric understanding of disease".</p> <p>Source code is available at: https://github.com/saezlab/MOFAcell</p> <p>Exceptions: Spatial data is excluded</p> <p>This folder contains processed data of the following publications, when using the data cite accordingly:<br> 1) Kuppe C, Ramirez Flores RO, Li Z, Hayat S, Levinson RT, Liao X, Hannani MT, Tanevski J, Wünnemann F, Nagai JS, et al (2022) Spatial multi-omic map of human myocardial infarction. Nature 608: 766–777<br> 2) Ramirez Flores RO, Lanzer JD, Holland CH, Leuschner F, Most P, Schultz J-H, Levinson RT & Saez-Rodriguez J (2021) Consensus Transcriptional Landscape of Human End-Stage Heart Failure. J Am Heart Assoc 10: e019667<br> 3) Reichart D, Lindberg EL, Maatz H, Miranda AMA, Viveiros A, Shvetsov N, Gärtner A, Nadelmann ER, Lee M, Kanemaru K, et al (2022) Pathogenic variants damage cell composition and single cell transcription in cardiomyopathies. Science 377: eabo1984<br> 4) Chaffin M, Papangeli I, Simonson B, Akkad A-D, Hill MC, Arduini A, Fleming SJ, Melanson M, Hayat S, Kost-Alimova M, et al (2022) Single-nucleus profiling of human dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Nature 608: 174–180 </p>
Alignment underpinning the molecular phylogeny of the Streptophyta based on SSU rDNA and rbcL sequence comparisons presented in Figure S1 of the article "Phylogenomic insights into the first multicellular streptophyte"
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Data from: Group formation, relatedness, and the evolution of multicellularity
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Data from: Experimental evolution with a multicellular host causes diversification within and between microbial parasite populations – differences in emerging phenotypes of two different parasite strains
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.