Geometrical Aspects of Evolutionary Transitions to Multicellularity

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Professor Raymond Goldstein FRS, Alan Turing Professor of Complex Physical Systems, DAMTP, University of Cambridge
• Wednesday 01 May 2024, 16:00-17:00
• Centre for Mathematical Sciences MR2, CMS.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Alison Warrington.

This talk will describe recent experimental and theoretical advances in understanding the dynamics and architecture of organisms that serve as models for evolutionary transitions to multicellularity. I will focus on four interrelated subjects: the fluid dynamical and elastic properties of the recently discovered choanoflagellate C. flexa, which dynamically interconverts between two hemispherical forms of opposite curvature, the recent discovery of common probability distributions of cellular neighbourhood volumes in both “snowflake yeast” and the green alga Volvox, embryonic “inversion” and the spontaneous curling of the extracellular matrix of Volvox. Taken together, these studies shed light on a fundamental question: “How do cells produce structures external to themselves in an accurate and robust manner?”

This talk is part of the DAMTP Departmental Colloquia series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Centre for Mathematical Sciences MR2, CMS

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.