AsianScientist (May 4, 2016) – Researchers at the University of Tokyo have demonstrated that a group of cancer-suppressing genes are key to the evolutionary step from single cell to multicellular organisms. This was revealed by whole genome sequencing of Gonium pectorale, a primitive member of the Volvocales order of multicellular algae. Their findings were published in Nature Communications.
Even complex multicellular organisms composed of billions of individual cells can trace their origins to unicellular ancestors that experienced a multicellular transition more than a billion years ago. Although evolutionary transitions from unicellular to multicellular can be recognized in various eukaryotic lineages, the evolutionarily key genes in the initial stage of multicellularity have remained a mystery.
Led by Associate Professor Hisayoshi Nozaki from the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Science, an international research group has constructed the whole genome sequence of the primitive multicellular organism G. pectorale. They then compared G. pectorale’s genome with genome data from its unicellular relative, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and the multicellular complex volvocalean species Volvox carteri in which the differentiation of cell functions is prominent.
The team demonstrated that a cell cycle-regulating gene identical to a human cancer-suppressing gene is key to the evolution of multicellularity. The international group also suggested that the evolution of cell-cycle genes might have occurred in the initial stage of multicellularity, preceding the evolution of genes for the differentiation of cellular functions.
“Among the Volvocales, the whole genomes of the ancestral Chlamydomonas and the most evolved member of the group Volvox were compared in 2010. This time, we aimed to further our knowledge of the evolution of multicellularity by comparing the full genome of Gonium, an organism at an intermediate stage of multicellularity between the unicellular Chlamydomonas and the multicellular Volvox,” said Nozaki.
“In the future, we would like to shed further light on the evolution of multicellularity by deciphering the full genome sequence of other members of the order Volvocales.”
The article can be found at: Hanschen et al. (2016) The Gonium Pectorale Genome Demonstrates Co-option of Cell Cycle Regulation During the Evolution of Multicellularitys.
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Source: University of Tokyo.
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