Abstract

This talk will describe recent experimental and theoretical advances in understanding the dynamics and architecture of organisms that serve as models for evolutionary transitions to multicellularity. I will focus on four interrelated subjects: the fluid dynamical and elastic properties of the recently discovered choanoflagellate C. flexa, which dynamically interconverts between two hemispherical forms of opposite curvature, the recent discovery of common probability distributions of cellular neighbourhood volumes in both “snowflake yeast” and the green alga Volvox, embryonic “inversion” and the spontaneous curling of the extracellular matrix of Volvox. Taken together, these studies shed light on a fundamental question: “How do cells produce structures external to themselves in an accurate and robust manner?”