Ruiz-Trillo, Iñaki, and Aurora M. Nedelcu, eds. Evolutionary transitions to multicellular life: principles and mechanisms . Vol. 2. Springer, 2015.
URL1 URL2
The transition to multicellular life is associated with some of the most important events in the history of life, such as the evolution of animals, land plants, multicellular fungi and many groups of macroscopic algae, including seaweeds. Yet, despite its importance, we are far from fully understanding the forces driving this transition as well as the genetic and molecular basis for the evolution of multicellularity. However, in recent years, emerging data from various fields are providing new insight into the factors and processes underlying the evolution of multicellularity in different lineages. The aim of this book is to offer a synthesis of the current issues and research into this fundamental biological question, by providing several complementary perspectives (both theoretical and experimental) and using examples from various lineages in which multicellularity evolved. The ultimate goal of the book is to integrate our understanding of how and why such transitions occurred and to facilitate the identification of general principles and mechanisms. We believe this book is a timely contribution to the field, given the research efforts, dedicated meetings and workshops that are being now committed to this question. The book will be of great interest to all researchers working in the field as well as to young scientists generally interested in evolutionary questions. The chapters in this book have been written by leading researchers in their respective fields. Each chapter provides a review of the current state of the field and/or offers new perspectives for future research. We have tried to provide a balance of topics, model-systems and approaches; however, due to space limits, many interesting and important subjects had to be omitted.