Emma Hammarlund
Research team manager
Origin and evolution of animal multicellularity in the light of phylogenomics and cancer genetics
Author
Summary, in English
The rise of animals represents a major but enigmatic event in the evolutionary history of life. In recent years, numerous studies have aimed at understanding the genetic basis of this transition. However, genome comparisons of diverse animal and protist lineages suggest that the appearance of gene families that were previously considered animal specific indeed preceded animals. Animals’ unicellular relatives, such as choanoflagellates, ichthyosporeans, and filastereans, demonstrate complex life cycles including transient multicellularity as well as genetic toolkits for temporal cell differentiation, cell-to-cell communication, apoptosis, and cell adhesion. This has warranted further exploration of the genetic basis underlying transitions in cellular organization. An alternative model for the study of transitions in cellular organization is tumors, which exploit physiological programs that characterize both unicellularity and multicellularity. Tumor cells, for example, switch adhesion on and off, up- or downregulate specific cell differentiation states, downregulate apoptosis, and allow cell migration within tissues. Here, we use insights from both the fields of phylogenomics and tumor biology to review the evolutionary history of the regulatory systems of multicellularity and discuss their overlap. We claim that while evolutionary biology has contributed to an increased understanding of cancer, broad investigations into tissue—normal and transformed—can also contribute the framework for exploring animal evolution.
Department/s
- StemTherapy: National Initiative on Stem Cells for Regenerative Therapy
- Molecular Evolution
- Division of Translational Cancer Research
- LUCC: Lund University Cancer Centre
- EpiHealth: Epidemiology for Health
Publishing year
2022
Language
English
Publication/Series
Medical Oncology
Volume
39
Issue
11
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Humana Press
Topic
- Cell and Molecular Biology
Keywords
- Evolution
- Genetics
- Multicellularity
- Phylogenomics
- Tissue
- Tumors
Status
Published
Research group
- Molecular Evolution
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1357-0560