{"622981":{"#nid":"622981","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"The momentous transition to multicellular life may not have been so hard after all","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBillions of years ago, life crossed a threshold. Single cells started to band together, and a world of formless, unicellular life was on course to evolve into the riot of shapes and functions of multicellular life today, from ants to pear trees to people. It\u0026#39;s a transition as momentous as any in the history of life, and until recently we had no idea how it happened. The gulf between unicellular and multicellular life seems almost unbridgeable; a single cell\u0026#39;s existence is simple and limited. \u0026quot;This is what evolution always does, makes use of things that are around for new purposes,\u0026quot; says \u003Cstrong\u003EWilliam Ratcliff\u003C\/strong\u003E, an assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech. That thrifty repurposing may explain the swift transitions that have unfolded in Ratcliff \u0026#39;s lab. Instead of looking at the fossil record or comparing genomes of existing organisms, he has recreated evolution in lab cultures. \u0026quot;My own research has been not to try to find out what happened in the real world, but to look at the process of how cells evolve and increase in\u0026nbsp;complexity,\u0026quot; he explains. As\u0026nbsp;cells banded together in lab cultures, they didn\u0026#39;t just put existing genes to new uses. Studies of \u003Cem\u003EVolvox\u003C\/em\u003E, an alga that forms beautiful, flagellated green balls, shows that multicellular organisms also found new ways to use existing functions. \u0026quot;What this group of algae has taught us is some of the steps involved in the evolution of a multicellular organism,\u0026quot; says \u003Cstrong\u003EMatthew\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EHerron\u003C\/strong\u003E, an evolutionary biologist in the School of Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"34626","created_gmt":"2019-07-03 13:46:01","changed_gmt":"2019-07-03 15:47:39","author":"ybassil3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"sustainability award","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/y6yl5jhk","dateline":{"date":"2019-06-28T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2019-06-28T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"604485":{"id":"604485","type":"image","title":"William Ratcliff","body":null,"created":"1522353811","gmt_created":"2018-03-29 20:03:31","changed":"1522353811","gmt_changed":"2018-03-29 20:03:31","alt":"","file":{"fid":"230440","name":"Will.Ratcliff.2016.tall250.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Will.Ratcliff.2016.tall250.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Will.Ratcliff.2016.tall250.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":112478,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Will.Ratcliff.2016.tall250.jpg?itok=gNBKrzAM"}},"622980":{"id":"622980","type":"image","title":"Matthew Herron","body":null,"created":"1562161359","gmt_created":"2019-07-03 13:42:39","changed":"1562161359","gmt_changed":"2019-07-03 13:42:39","alt":"","file":{"fid":"237244","name":"Matthew Herron.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Matthew%20Herron.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Matthew%20Herron.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":46434,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Matthew%20Herron.jpg?itok=HMw68nqH"}}},"media_ids":["604485","622980"],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"179287","name":"Matthew Herron"},{"id":"177585","name":"William Ratcliff"},{"id":"176339","name":"multicellularity"},{"id":"170639","name":"multicellular"},{"id":"3028","name":"evolution"},{"id":"181630","name":"Volvox"},{"id":"277","name":"Biology"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}