Multicellularity: Origins and Evolution (Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology)

by Karl J. Niklas

Scholars consider the origins and consequences of the evolution of multicellularity, addressing a range of organisms, experimental protocols, theoretical concepts, and philosophical issues. The evolution of multicellularity raises questions regarding genomic and developmental commonalities and discordances, selective advantages and disadvantages, physical determinants of development, and the origins of morphological novelties. It also represents a change in the definition of individuality, because a new organism emerges from interactions among single cells. This volume considers these and other questions, with contributions that explore the origins and consequences of the evolution of multicellularity, addressing a range of topics, organisms, and experimental protocols. Each section focuses on selected topics or particular lineages that present a significant insight or challenge. The contributors consider the fossil record of the paleontological circumstances in which animal multicellularity evolved; cooptation, recurrent patterns, modularity, and plausible pathways for multicellular evolution in plants; theoretical approaches to the amoebozoa and fungi (cellular slime molds having long provided a robust model system for exploring the evolution of multicellularity), plants, and animals; genomic toolkits of metazoan multicellularity; and philosophical aspects of the meaning of individuality in light of multicellular evolution. ContributorsMaja Adamska, Argyris Arnellos, Juan A. Arias, Eugenio Azpeitia, Mariana Benítez, Adriano Bonforti, John Tyler Bonner, Peter L. Conlin, A. Keith Dunker, Salva Duran-Nebreda, Ana E. Escalante, Valeria Hernández-Hernández, Kunihiko Kaneko, Andrew H. Knoll, Stephan G. König, Daniel J. G. Lahr, Ottoline Leyser, Alan C. Love, Raul Montañez, Emilio Mora van Cauwelaert, Alvaro Moreno, Vidyanand Nanjundiah, Aurora M. Nedelcu, Stuart A. Newman, Karl J. Niklas, William C. Ratcliff, Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo, Ricard Solé

Genres: Biology

Hardcover

Reviews

[Slow Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and extremely readable ...the essay "Angiosperm Multicellularity: The Whole, the Parts,
and the Sum" by Ottoline Leyser is particularly nice--a breezy examination of the origins of multicellularity in plant life that changes how one looks at plants altogether; the Metazoan backstroke to find the unicellular ancestors of all multicellular eukaryote life in "What Are the Genomes of Premetazoan Lineages Telling Us about the Origin of Metazoa?" by Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo is also a treat. This is philosophy of biology as much as it is plain biology--a wonderful balance of imaginative extrapolation and recent empirical breakthroughs in comparative DNA analysis etc. Shoots and roots! Choanoflagellata and opisthokonts!