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YEAST CO-OPTED FUNCTION. "Apoptosis rapidly evolved a new, co-opted function in our multicellular yeast with no obvious parallel in the unicellular ancestor. Similarly, the existence of apoptosis-like cellular suicide in the unicellular ancestors of metazoans may be an important preadaptation, facilitating the evolution of complex multicellularity." http://www.pnas.org/content/109/5/1595.full View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend on the snowflake. It is emblematic of the truth that nothing in nature is too small to be deeply fascinating. I post this after visiting the beautiful city of Prague for Christmas week, historical home to mathematics, astronomy and music. In the nearby ancient town of Cesky Krumlov, a snowflake landed in my black coat, after viewing Miroslav Páral's extraordinary statue, The Guardian of Intestines, in the city beneath the city. Eclectic mixture. View in LinkedIn

China says it will phase out ivory trade in 2017 View in LinkedIn

RAPID EVOLUTION IN VITRO. "Here we report on the de novo evolution of a two-stage life cycle in the unicellular alga C. reinhardtii. In our experiments, we find that simple multicellularity can evolve rapidly in C. reinhardtii. Like most extant multicellular organisms, we find that multicellular C. reinhardtii possesses a life history that alternates between uni- and multicellular stages." https://lnkd.in/dU8HRX5 View in LinkedIn

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS. "Instead, the unicellular bottleneck may have evolved in the absence of genetic conflict for other reasons, creating a multicellular body plan largely immune to future intercellular conflicts as a side-effect. This key trait may therefore catalyse the evolution of multicellular complexity, facilitating the origin and expansion of cellular division of labour." https://lnkd.in/dU8HRX5 View in LinkedIn

EVIDENCE LACKING. "Although there is little doubt that a unicellular bottleneck serves the present function of preventing among-cell conflicts in large multicellular organisms, there is no direct evidence that it originally arose as an adaptation for this function." https://lnkd.in/dU8HRX5 View in LinkedIn

SINGLE CELL BOTTLENECK. "The ubiquity and persistence of the unicellular bottleneck has been attributed to the fact that it purges within-group genetic variation, eliminating the potential for among-cell evolutionary conflicts that might otherwise erode multicellular complexity." https://lnkd.in/dU8HRX5 View in LinkedIn

COUPLING. "A hallmark feature of complex multicellularity is a two-stage life cycle in which multicellular individuals develop from a single cell. While this process is often coupled with sexual reproduction, mitotically produced unicellular propagules are also widespread (for example, in multicellular red, green, and brown algae and parthenogenetic animals)." https://lnkd.in/dU8HRX5 View in LinkedIn

LOST ROADMAP OF TRANSITION. "Most origins of multicellularity are ancient and transitional forms have been lost to extinction, so little is known about the potential for multicellularity to evolve from unicellular lineages, or the route through which a multicellular life history arises." https://lnkd.in/dU8HRX5 View in LinkedIn

"BROWN ALGAE are also one of only a small number of eukaryotic lineages that have evolved complex multicellularity." https://lnkd.in/dt66se8 View in LinkedIn