TY - JOUR T1 - Rapid Transition towards the Division of Labor via Evolution of Developmental Plasticity A1 - Gavrilets, Sergey Y1 - 2010/06/10 N2 - Author Summary Biological organisms are highly complex and are comprised of many different parts that function to ensure the survival and reproduction of the whole. How and why the complexity has increased in the course of evolution is a question of great scientific and philosophical significance. Biologists have identified a number of major transitions in the evolution of complexity including the origin of chromosomes, eukaryotes, sex, multicellular organisms, and social groups in insects. A crucial step in many of these transitions is the division of labor between components of the emerging higher-level evolutionary unit. How the division of labor was achieved in the face of selfishness of lower-level units is controversial. Here I study the emergence of differentiated cell colonies in which one part of the colony's cells (germ) specializes in reproduction and the other part of the colony's cells (soma) specializes in survival. Using a mathematical model I show that complete germ-soma differentiation can be achieved relatively easily and fast (with a million generations) via the evolution of developmental plasticity. My approach is expandable in a number of directions including the emergence of multiple cell types, complex organs, or casts of eusocial insects. JF - PLOS Computational Biology JA - PLOS Computational Biology VL - 6 IS - 6 UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000805 SP - e1000805 EP - PB - Public Library of Science M3 - doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000805 ER -