Matthew Herron SFI News:
The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is hosting a colloquium with Matthew Herron at 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, in the Noyce Conference Room in Santa Fe.
Abstract: The transition to multicellular life was one of a few major events in the history of life that created new opportunities for more complex biological systems to evolve. Indeed, multicellularity is a prerequisite for the evolution of large, complex organisms such as plants and animals.
An understanding of the ecological conditions and evolutionary mechanisms that favor this key innovation is necessary to determine where and with what likelihood complex life may have arisen beyond Earth. I address the evolution of multicellularity using both retrospective (comparative) and prospective (experimental) approaches, both using green algae of the volvocine clade as a model system. The comparative results comprise the most detailed reconstruction of a Major Transition currently available.
The experimental results include de novo origins of simple (undifferentiated) multicellularity in two separate experiments in a species that has not had multicellular ancestors. Furthermore, the form of multicellularity observed differs substantially between experiments, suggesting that the particulars of the transition to multicellular life depend not only on the nature of the unicellular ancestor, but on the specific selective pressures driving the transition as well.
SFI Host: Eric Libby
Click here to view the online event listing.
The Santa Fe Institute is a nonprofit research center located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Its scientists collaborate across disciplines to understand the complex systems that underlie critical questions for science and humanity. The Institute is supported by philanthropic individuals and foundations, forward-thinking partner companies, and government science agencies.
