Conflicts among Levels of Selection as Fuel for the Evolution of Individuality

Rainey, Paul B., and Benjamin Kerr. “Conflicts among levels of selection as fuel for the evolution of individuality.” The major transitions in evolution revisited (2011): 141-162.
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This chapter describes the evolutionary transition from single cells to multicellular individuals. It shows that in multicellular organisms, individuality is ultimately a property of individual cells that give rise to a multicellular organism in each generation. It then investigates the breakdown of cooperation, in the course of developing a heterodox idea on the origins of the germ-soma distinction. It examines the evolution of multicellular development in the Pseudomonas system by introducing a discrete-time theoretical model. The described unconventional life cycles that span the multilevel selection (MLS)-1 to MLS-2 juncture are founded in experimental reality.

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