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SUMMARY:The Evolution of Multicellularity - Rainey\, P (New Zealand and Ma
 x Planck Institute)
DTSTART:20141020T150000Z
DTEND:20141020T160000Z
UID:TALK55636@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mustapha Amrani
DESCRIPTION:Cooperation is central to the emergence of multicellular life\
 , however the means by which the earliest collectives maintained integrity
  in the face of destructive cheating types is unclear.  One idea posits ch
 eats as a primitive germ line in a life cycle that facilitates collective 
 reproduction.  I will describe an experiment in which simple cooperating l
 ineages of bacteria were propagated under a selective regime that rewarded
  collective-level persistence.  Collectives reproduced via life cycles tha
 t either embraced\, or purged\, cheating types.  When embraced\, the life 
 cycle alternated between phenotypic states.  Selection fostered inception 
 of a developmental switch that underpinned the emergence of collectives wh
 ose fitness\, during the course of evolution\, became decoupled from the f
 itness of constituent cells.  Such development and decoupling did not occu
 r when groups reproduced via a cheat-purging regime.  I will discuss the f
 indings in the context of key events in the evolution of Darwinian individ
 uality during the transition from single cells to multicellularity.\n
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
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