The Origin of Animal Multicellularity and Cell Differentiation

• Published in: Developmental cell Vol. 43; no. 2; pp. 124 - 140
• Main Authors: Brunet, Thibaut, King, Nicole
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 23.10.2017
• Subjects: Animals; Biological Evolution; Cell Differentiation; Cell Lineage; choanoflagellates; Choanozoa; evo-devo; evolutionary cell biology; metazoan origins; multicellularity; evo-devo; evolutionary cell biology; multicellularity; Choanozoa; metazoan origins; choanoflagellates

Over 600 million years ago, animals evolved from a unicellular or colonial organism whose cell(s) captured bacteria with a collar complex, a flagellum surrounded by a microvillar collar. Using principles from evolutionary cell biology, we reason that the transition to multicellularity required modif...