Deep conservation and co-option of programmed cell death facilitates evolution of alternative phenotypes at multiple biological levels.

Alternative phenotypes, such as polyphenisms and sexual dimorphisms, are widespread in nature and appear at all levels of biological organization, from genes and cells to morphology and behavior. Yet, our understanding of the mechanisms through which alternative phenotypes develop and how they evolve remains understudied. In this review, we explore the association between alternative phenotypes and programmed cell death, a mechanism responsible for the elimination of superfluous cells during development. We discuss the ancient origins and deep conservation of programmed cell death (its function, forms and underlying core regulatory gene networks), and propose that it was co-opted repeatedly to generate alternative phenotypes at the level of cells, tissues, organs, external morphology, and even individuals. We review several examples from across the tree of life to explore the conditions under which programmed cell death is likely to facilitate the evolution of alternative phenotypes.

• Publication year

  2022

• Venue

  Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology

• Publication date

  2022-05-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.semcdb.2022.05.024PMID 35654666
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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