Expression and form: Arash Kianianmomeni on gene regulation

Kianianmomeni Figure 1

Figure 1 from Kianianmomeni 2015. Gene regulatory mechanisms behind the evolution of multicellularity. Model illustrating the role of gene regulatory mechanisms in the evolution of multicellular Volvox from a Chlamydomonas-like ancestor.

Arash Kianianmomeni’s latest paper in Communicative & Integrative Biology addresses the possible roles of gene regulation and alternative splicing in the evolution of multicellularity and cellular differentiation (Kianianmomeni, A. 2015. Potential impact of gene regulatory mechanisms on the evolution of multicellularity in the volvocine algae. Commun. Integr. Biol., 37–41. doi 10.1080/19420889.2015.1017175). The article is an ‘Addendum’ to a 2014 study by Kianianmomeni and colleagues in BMC Genomics. Communicative & Integrative Biology often invites authors to write these addenda after they have published a (usually high impact) paper elsewhere, providing authors the opportunity to publish material that was not included in the original paper due to space limitations or because it was opinionated or speculative. I may address the BMC Genomics article in a future post, but right now there is more new volvocine research than I have time to write about (it should be an exciting Volvox meeting this summer!).

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Evolutionary Transitions to Multicellular Life published

Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo and Aurora Nedelcu have recently edited a new book on the evolution of multicellularity, Evolutionary Transitions to Multicellular Life.  The 22 chapters are divided into five sections: “Multicellularity in the Tree of Life,” “Model-Systems,” “Theoretical Approaches,” “Genomics Insights,” and “Molecular Mechanisms,” and the forward is written by Nicole King. Volvox  shows up in the chapters by Susan C. Sharpe, Laura Eme, Matthew W. Brown and Andrew Roger (“Timing the origins of multicellular eukaryotes through phylogenomics and relaxed molecular clock analyses”); by myself and Aurora Nedelcu (“Volvocine algae: from simple to complex multicellularity”); by Cristian A. Solari, Vanina J. Galzenati and John O. Kessler (“The evolutionary ecology of multicellularity: the volvocine green algae as a case study”); by John O. Kessler, Aurora M. Nedelcu, Cristian A. Solari and Deborah E. Shelton (“Cells acting as lenses: a possible role for light in the evolution of morphological asymmetry in the volvocine algae”); and by Daniel Lang and Stefan A. Rensing (“The evolution of transcriptional regulation in the Viridiplantae and its correlation with morphological complexity”).

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