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Multicellularity makes somatic differentiation evolutionarily stable.

Mary E Wahl1, Andrew W Murray2

  • 1Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138; FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|July 13, 2016
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Multicellularity prevents the extinction of beneficial somatic cells by outcompeting non-differentiating mutants. This study engineered yeast to show that multicellularity provides evolutionary stability for somatic differentiation.

Keywords:
differentiationevolutionmulticellularitysynthetic biologyyeast

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Cell biology
  • Microbiology

Background:

  • Multicellular organisms typically differentiate into germ cells (for reproduction) and somatic cells (for support).
  • The absence of somatic differentiation in unicellular species is often attributed to the high cost of non-reproductive cells.
  • An alternative hypothesis suggests unicellular organisms are vulnerable to invasive, non-differentiating mutants.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To test the hypothesis that multicellularity provides evolutionary stability against non-differentiating mutants.
  • To investigate the role of somatic cells in preventing lineage extinction.

Main Methods:

  • Engineered strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast) to exhibit multicellularity and somatic differentiation.
  • Created strains that differed only in the presence or absence of multicellularity and somatic differentiation.
  • Allowed direct in vivo comparisons between unicellular and multicellular lifestyles.

Main Results:

  • Nondifferentiating mutants successfully invaded and overtook unicellular yeast populations.
  • Multicellular, soma-producing yeast strains outcompeted these nondifferentiating mutants.
  • Somatic cells provided fitness benefits exceeding their reproductive costs, even in unicellular strains.

Conclusions:

  • Multicellularity confers evolutionary stability to somatic differentiation.
  • The evolution of multicellularity may be driven by the need to protect against invasive mutants.
  • Somatic cells play a crucial role in the evolutionary success of multicellular life.