The Evolution of Complex Multicellularity in Land Plants

The evolution of complex multicellularity in land plants represents a pivotal event in the history of life on Earth, characterized by significant increases in biological complexity. This transition, classified as a Major Evolutionary Transition (MET), is best understood through the framework of Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality (ETIs), which focuses on formerly independent entities forming higher-level units that lose their reproductive autonomy. While much of the ETI literature has concentrated on the early stages of multicellularity, such as the formation and maintenance stages, this paper seeks to address the less explored transformation stage. To do so, we apply an approach that we call Transitions in Structural Complexity (TSCs), which focuses on the emergence of new units of organization via the three key evolutionary processes of modularization, subfunctionalization, and integration to the evolution of land plants. To lay the groundwork, we first explore the relationships between sex, individuality, and units of selection to highlight a sexual life cycle-based perspective on ETIs by examining the early stages of the transition to multicellularity (formation) in the sexual life cycle of the unicellular common ancestor of land plants, emphasizing the differences between the transition to multicellularity in eumetazoans and land plants. We then directly apply the TSC approach in this group, identifying key evolutionary events such as the distinct evolutionary innovations like shoot, root, vascular systems, and specialized reproductive structures, arguing that bringing these under the broader rubric of TSCs affords a degree of explanatory unification. By examining these evolutionary processes, this paper provides a new perspective on the evolution of multicellularity in land plants, highlighting both parallels and distinctions with the animal kingdom.