RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Evolution of multicellularity by collective integration of spatial information
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.02.20.957647
DO 10.1101/2020.02.20.957647
A1 Enrico Sandro Colizzi
A1 Renske M.A. Vroomans
A1 Roeland M.H. Merks
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/02/20/2020.02.20.957647.abstract
AB At the origin of multicellularity, cells may have evolved aggregation in response to predation, for functional specialisation or to allow large-scale integration of environmental cues. These group-level properties emerged from the interactions between cells in a group, and determined the selection pressures experienced by these cells.We investigate the evolution of multicellularity with an evolutionary model where cells search for resources by chemotaxis in a shallow, noisy gradient. Cells can evolve their adhesion to others in a periodically changing environment, where a cell’s fitness solely depends on its distance from the gradient source.We show that multicellular aggregates evolve because they perform chemo-taxis more efficiently than single cells. Only when the environment changes too frequently, a unicellular state evolves which relies on cell dispersal. Both strategies prevent the invasion of the other through interference competition, creating evolutionary bi-stability. Therefore, collective behaviour can be an emergent selective driver for undifferentiated multicellularity.