Development of Cell Differentiation in the Transition to Multicellularity: a Dynamical Modeling Approach

Multicellularity has emerged and continues to emerge in a variety of lineages and under diverse environmental conditions. In order to attain individuality and integration, multicellular organisms must exhibit spatial cell differentiation, which in turn allows cell aggregates to robustly generate traits and behaviors at the multicellular level. Nevertheless, the mechanisms that may lead to the development of cellular differentiation and patterning in emerging multicellular organisms remain unclear. We briefly review two conceptual frameworks that have addressed this issue: the cooperation-defection framework and the dynamical patterning modules (DPMs) framework. Then, situating ourselves in the DPM formalism first put forward by S. A. Newman and collaborators, we state a hypothesis for cell differentiation and arrangement in cellular masses of emerging multicellular organisms. Our hypothesis is based on the role of the generic cell-to-cell communication and adhesion patterning mechanisms, which are two fundamental mechanisms for the evolution of multicellularity, and whose molecules seem to be well-conserved in extant multicellular organisms and their unicellular relatives. We review some fundamental ideas underlying this hypothesis and contrast them with empirical and theoretical evidence currently available. Next, we use a mathematical model to illustrate how the mechanisms and assumptions considered in the hypothesis we postulate may render stereotypical arrangements of differentiated cells in an emerging cellular aggregate and may contribute to the variation and recreation of multicellular phenotypes. Finally, we discuss the potential implications of our approach and compare them to those entailed by the cooperation-defection framework in the study of cell differentiation in the transition to multicellularity.