Evolution of multicellularity: cheating done right

• Published in: Biology & philosophy 2019-04, Vol.34 (3), p.1-22, Article 34
• Main Author: Veit, Walter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Breeding success; Ecology; Education; Evolution; Evolutionary Biology; Nature; Philosophy; Philosophy of Biology; Reproduction; Selective breeding
• ISSN: 0169-3867; 1572-8404
• DOI: 10.1007/s10539-019-9688-9

For decades Darwinian processes were framed in the form of the Lewontin conditions: reproduction, variation and differential reproductive success were taken to be sufficient and necessary. Since Buss (The evolution of individuality, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1987 ) and the work of Maynard Smith and Szathmary (The major transitions in evolution, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995 ) biologists were eager to explain the major transitions from individuals to groups forming new individuals subject to Darwinian mechanisms themselves. Explanations that seek to explain the emergence of a new level of selection, however, cannot employ properties that would already have to exist on that level for selection to take place. Recently, Hammerschmidt et al. (Nature 515:75–79, 2014 ) provided a ‘bottom-up’ experiment corroborating much of the theoretical work Paul Rainey has done since 2003 on how cheats can play an important role in the emergence of new Darwinian individuals on a multicellular level. The aims of this paper are twofold. First, I argue for a conceptual shift in perspective from seeing cheats as (1) a ‘problem’ that needs to be solved for multi-cellularity to evolve to (2) the very ‘key’ for the evolution of multicellularity. Secondly, I illustrate the consequences of this shift for both theoretical and experimental work, arguing for a more prominent role of ecology and the multi-level selection framework within the debate then they currently occupy.