OEB Seminar Series

Nicole King
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
University of California, Berkeley
"Choanoflagellates and the origin of animal multicellularity"

 Abstract: All animals are multicellular, yet little is known about how animal multicellularity first evolved.  The choanoflagellate S. rosetta is one of the closest living relatives of animals and its study promises to illuminate the origin of animal multicellularity. Just as animals develop from a single cell – the zygote – a single cell of S. rosetta can produce a multicellular rosette colony through multiple rounds of cell division coupled with stable cell adhesion. In my seminar, I will describe my lab’s studies of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that regulate the switch to rosette development and discuss the implications of our findings for understanding animal origins and development.