Complex multicellularity linked with expanded chemical arsenals in microbes
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Single-celled microorganisms evolving to form cooperative multicellular units represents a key innovation in the history of life. Multicellularity is required for cell differentiation and, as such, is critical to the emergence of biological complexity. Here, we propose and find support for our hypothesis that multicellularity facilitated massive expansions in the biosynthetic potential to produce specialized metabolites across microbial life. Our systematic characterization of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) across bacteria confirms that most taxa have limited predicted potential to produce natural products. In contrast with primarily unicellular lineages, we show that the origins of biosynthetic expansion in Actinomycetota, Cyanobacteriota, and Myxococcota coincide with independent origins of multicellular structures such as mycelia, filaments, and fruiting bodies. Further, we reveal that the two primary origins of expansions in specialized metabolism for fungi, corresponding to the Pezizomycotina and Agaricomycetes, similarly coincide with the emergence of complex multicellularity and fruiting body formation as well as mechanisms for self-identification during haplontic life cycles. Interestingly, all five of the biosynthetically talented multicellular microbial lineages are concomitantly enriched in carbohydrate utilization enzymes, suggesting that ancient chemical innovations have been further shaped by catabolic processes. Intraspecific cooperation shaping the evolution of specialized metabolism further informs our understanding of the major transitions in life and will help guide efforts to discover new antimicrobial compounds to counter the emergence of antibiotic resistance.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".