SciTech Chronicles. . . . . . . . .April 22nd, 2025
#pour-over #avalanches #flavor #gooseneck #interfaces #"emergent properties" #multicellularity #"Metabolic Topography" #capacity #splits #"Agentic AI" #"RF Plant" #"algal blooms" #"Greenland Ice Sheet" #phosphorus #nitrogen Tags: #volatile-rich #controlled-source #seismic #imaging
Eukaryotic cell emerged as evolutionary algorithmic phase transition
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/04/250421163507.htm
https://press.uni-mainz.de/eukaryotic-cell-emerged-as-evolutionary-algorithmic-phase-transition/
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2422968122
* compromise: conserved process of gene growth vs. change in genetic regulation which incorporated noncoding sequences
* increase in cellular complexity occurred continuously
* in abrupt manner at critical point unlocked path toward multicellular organisms
[biological evolution] Whole-genome duplication drives long-term adaptation
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/03/250326221649.htm
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43515443
Genome duplication in a long-term multicellularity evolution experiment
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08689-6
#yeast #MolecularBiology #evolution #genetics #MolecularGenetics #multicellularity #adaptation #genomics #GenomeDuplication #CellBiology
#3D structure of the social #amoeba #genome sheds light on the transition to #multicellularity.
#Dictyostelium #chromosomes #chromatin_looping #RNA_polymerase
https://phys.org/news/2025-02-3d-social-amoeba-genome-transition.html
#3D structure of the social #amoeba #genome sheds light on the transition to #multicellularity.
#Dictyostelium #chromosomes #chromatin_looping #RNA_polymerase
https://phys.org/news/2025-02-3d-social-amoeba-genome-transition.html
Tiny microbe colonies communicate to coordinate their behavior https://www.uib.no/en/michaelsarscentre/175104/tiny-microbe-colonies-communicate-coordinate-their-behavior
Electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in the closest relative of animals https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr7434
"A new study reveals evidence of electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in #choanoflagellates, the closest living relatives of #animals. This elaborate example of cell communication offers key insights into the early #evolution of animal #multicellularity and nervous systems."
Thrilled to see #choanoflagellates on the cover of Science Advances 🤩. Our latest work "Electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in the closest relative of animals" out now. Link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr7434
Work supported by @MSarsCentre, @UiB, #evolution #neuron #multicellularity 👏👏👏 Jeffrey Colgren
#Multicellularity enthusiasts! Mark your calendars! EMBO Workshop on "Evolution and Origins of Multicellularity Across the Tree of Life"
📅 October 9-11, 2025, Barcelona
🔗 Pre-register here: coming-soon.embo.org/w25-102
@csic.es @embopress.org
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxKj...
EMBO meeting
In animals, Sox genes turn differentiated cells into stem cells. Scientists swapped a homologous gene from unicellular life into mouse cells. Still became stem cells. Injected in an embryo, the stems helped build a patchy chimeric mouse!
~Choanoflagellates—being single-celled—don't have stem cells, but they have these genes to control basic cellular processes that animals repurposed for building bodies.~
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/11/241118125716.htm
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-54152-x
The bioenergetic cost of building a metazoan
#evolution #multicellularity #complexity #science
Hourglass model of complex multicellularity found in brown algae https://phys.org/news/2024-10-hourglass-complex-multicellularity-brown-algae.html paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08059-8
"Complex #multicellularity evolved independently in various eukaryotic lineages, including #animals, #plants, #fungi, and #algae... According to the hourglass model of embryonic development, early and late stages of development exhibit morphological and molecular diversity, while a mid-embryonic phase remains highly conserved across species."
We are family: Tracing the #evolution of animals https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2024/evolution-of-multicelled-life
"To understand the origins of muticelled life, researchers are studying a motley assortment of simpler animal relatives. The commonalities they’re unearthing offer a trove of clues about our mutual past... Researchers speculate that something major must have happened in the world to make teaming up such a good deal. It must be environmental, to a large degree"
"As seawater gets colder, it grows thicker. It’s basic physics — the density and viscosity of water molecules rises as the temperature drops. Under the conditions of Snowball Earth, the ocean would have been twice or even four times as viscous as it was before the planet froze over. Simpson wondered what it would have been like to be a microscopic organism in the ocean during Snowball Earth."
#BioPhysics #SnowballEarth #ComplexLife #Multicellularity #EvolutionaryBiology
Snowball Earth’s Environmental Conditions Gave Multicellular Organisms Evolutionary Advantage
https://www.sci.news/paleontology/snowball-earth-multicellularity-13063.html #geology #biology #Cryogenian #SnowballEarth #multicellularity
"By testing a series of alternative—& commonly debated—hypotheses, we demonstrate how #multicellularity was likely acquired differently in #eukaryotes & #prokaryotes owing to selective differences on their size due to the biophysical & #metabolic regimes they inhabit: decreasing temperatures... instigated by the onset of glaciations generated selective pressures towards smaller sizes in organisms in the diffusive regime & towards larger sizes in motile heterotrophs"
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2023.2767
Fossil-calibrated molecular clock data enable reconstruction of steps leading to differentiated multicellularity and anisogamy in the Volvocine algae
#evolution #fossils #multicellularity #algae
https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-024-01878-1
The evolution of multicellularity in macroalgae involved genes for cell adhesion, extracellular matrix formation, cell polarity, transport, and cell differentiation.
#multicellularity #algae #evolution #EvolutionaryBiology
#Macroalgae #genetics study sheds light on how seaweed became multicellular
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-macroalgae-genetics-seaweed-multicellular.html
Macroalgal deep #genomics illuminate multiple paths to aquatic, photosynthetic multicellularity https://www.cell.com/molecular-plant/fulltext/S1674-2052(24)00084-4
"Three lineages of #algae developed #multicellularity independently and during very different time periods by acquiring genes that enable cell adhesion, extracellular matrix formation, and cell differentiation"
Mixed clonal-aggregative multicellularity entrained by extreme salinity fluctuations in a close relative of animals
#evolution #multicellularity
