The origins of multicellularity

There is great interest in the invention of multicellularity because it is one of the major transitions during the course of early evolution.¹ Most of the emphasis has been on why it occurred. For instance, recently Gerhart and Kirschner² have argued that a multicellular organism has gained the advantage of a unicellular ancestor because it can more effectively shield itself from the vagaries of the environment by producing its own internal environment. In broader terms, this is Dawkins'³ argument that a competitively effective way of carrying the genes from one generation to the next is by building a complex soma that safely sees to it that the germ plasm survives. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.