Follow-up meetings to the MBI Summit on the Rules of Life will take a more in-depth look at certain topics within the broader theme. In this first follow-up, a focused working group will more deeply explore the emergence of cell differentiation in early multicellular evolution.
The evolution of multicellularity is one of the major evolutionary transitions and enabled the increase in biological complexity in diverse lineages. A major feature of biological complexity in multicellular organisms is the evolution of cell differentiation, which allows for a richer functionality from a single genotype.
An important question is to know what mechanisms promoted the emergence and evolution of cellular differentiation in nascent multicellular organisms. A common view is that there are selection advantages for functional specialization, and therefore natural selection acts promoting phenotype heterogeneities within multicellular organisms.
This workshop will test the hypothesis that cellular differentiation can emerge from a neutral process, in which cells communicate with neighboring cells, and this process can make cellular behaviors diverge, and consequently promote cell differentiation.
Participants
| Name | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Marcella Gomez | Department of Applied Mathematics, University of California, Santa Cruz | mgomez26@ucsc.edu |
| Pedro Marquez Zacarias | School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology | pedromaz@gatech.edu |
| David Murrugarra | Department of Mathematics, University of Kentucky | murrugarra@uky.edu |
| Ted Pavlic | School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering/School of Sustainability/School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University | tpavlic@asu.edu |
| Rozenn Pineau | School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology | rpineau3@gatech.edu |
| Alan Veliz-Cuba | Department of Mathematics, University of Dayton | avelizcuba1@udayton.edu |
This workshop is supported by the National Science Foundation Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) and Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) through the Understanding the Rules of Life Activities at NSF.
