The evolution of multicellularity was a major transition in evolution and set the stage for unprecedented increases in complexity, especially in land plants and animals. Here we explore the genetics underlying a de novo origin of multicellularity in a microbial evolution experiment carried out on the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. We show that large-scale changes in gene expression underlie the transition to a multicellular life cycle. Among these, changes to genes involved in cell cycle and reproductive processes were overrepresented, as were changes to C. reinhardtii-specific and volvocine-specific genes. These results suggest that the genetic basis for the experimental evolution of multicellularity in C. reinhardtii has both lineage-specific and shared features, and that the shared features have more in common with C. reinhardtii’s relatives among the volvocine algae than with other multicellular green algae or land plants.
Herron_RNA-Seq_FPKMs_03h
Fragments Per Kilobase of transcript per Million mapped reads for strains CC-125 and WRC01 at 3 hours post-inoculation in the RNA-Seq experiment.
Herron_RNA-Seq_FPKMs_06h
Fragments Per Kilobase of transcript per Million mapped reads for strains CC-125 and WRC01 at 6 hours post-inoculation in the RNA-Seq experiment.
Herron_RNA-Seq_FPKMs_09h
Fragments Per Kilobase of transcript per Million mapped reads for strains CC-125 and WRC01 at 9 hours post-inoculation in the RNA-Seq experiment.
Herron_RNA-Seq_FPKMs_12h
Fragments Per Kilobase of transcript per Million mapped reads for strains CC-125 and WRC01 at 12 hours post-inoculation in the RNA-Seq experiment.
Herron_RNA-Seq_FPKMs_48h
Fragments Per Kilobase of transcript per Million mapped reads for strains CC-125 and WRC01 at 48 hours post-inoculation in the RNA-Seq experiment.
Herron_BSA_unis_variants
Variants detected in the bulked segregant analysis for the unicellular pool. Variant call format file (vcf) produced by freeBayes v0.9.15 (https://github.com/ekg/freebayes). Parameters used in freeBayes and output column contents are described in commented lines in the file.
Herron_BSA_multis_variants
Variants detected in the bulked segregant analysis for the multicellular pool. Variant call format file (vcf) produced by freeBayes v0.9.15 (https://github.com/ekg/freebayes). Parameters used in freeBayes and output column contents are described in commented lines in the file.
Herron_phylostrata_genome
Lists the results of the phylostratigraphy analysis for all genes in the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii reference genome version 5.5.
Herron_phylostrata_code
Python code used to perform the phylostratigraphy analysis.
Herron_RNA-Seq_DiffExp_03h
Genes that are significantly differentially expressed at 3 hours post-inoculation.
Herron_RNA-Seq_DiffExp_06h
Genes that are significantly differentially expressed at 6 hours post-inoculation.
Herron_RNA-Seq_DiffExp_09h
Genes that are significantly differentially expressed at 9 hours post-inoculation.
Herron_RNA-Seq_DiffExp_12h
Genes that are significantly differentially expressed at 12 hours post-inoculation.
Herron_RNA-Seq_DiffExp_48h
Genes that are significantly differentially expressed at 48 hours post-inoculation.
Herron_biological_functions_genome
Lists biological functions of genes in the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii reference genome v5.5.
README
README file describing contents of the other files.