Selective drivers of simple multicellularity
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Updated: Oct 1, 2025

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Published on: April 19, 2012
Kai Tong1, G Ozan Bozdag2, William C Ratcliff2
1School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA; Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Abstract:
In order to understand the evolution of multicellularity, we must understand how and why selection favors the first steps in this process: the evolution of simple multicellular groups. Multicellularity has evolved many times in independent lineages with fundamentally different ecologies, yet no work has yet systematically examined these diverse selective drivers. Here we review recent developments in systematics, comparative biology, paleontology, synthetic biology, theory, and experimental evolution, highlighting ten selective drivers of simple multicellularity. Our survey highlights the many ecological opportunities available for simple multicellularity, and stresses the need for additional work examining how these first steps impact the subsequent evolution of complex multicellularity.
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