Varied Solutions to Multicellularity: The Biophysical and Evolutionary Consequences of Diverse Intercellular Bonds

Overview

Journal Biophys Rev (Melville)

Specialty Biophysics

Date 2022 Jun 8

PMID 35673523

Authors

Thomas C Day

Pedro Marquez-Zacarias

Pablo Bravo

Aawaz R Pokhrel

Kathryn A MacGillivray

William C Ratcliff

Peter J Yunker

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The diversity of multicellular organisms is, in large part, due to the fact that multicellularity has independently evolved many times. Nonetheless, multicellular organisms all share a universal biophysical trait: cells are attached to each other. All mechanisms of cellular attachment belong to one of two broad classes; intercellular bonds are either reformable or they are not. Both classes of multicellular assembly are common in nature, having independently evolved dozens of times. In this review, we detail these varied mechanisms as they exist in multicellular organisms. We also discuss the evolutionary implications of different intercellular attachment mechanisms on nascent multicellular organisms. The type of intercellular bond present during early steps in the transition to multicellularity constrains future evolutionary and biophysical dynamics for the lineage, affecting the origin of multicellular life cycles, cell-cell communication, cellular differentiation, and multicellular morphogenesis. The types of intercellular bonds used by multicellular organisms may thus result in some of the most impactful historical constraints on the evolution of multicellularity.

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