Abstract
Evolution of eukaryotes from simple cells to complex multicellular organisms remains a mystery. Our postulate is that cytoskeletal stiffening is a necessary condition for evolution of complex multicellular organisms from early simple eukaryotes. Recent findings show that embryonic stem (ES) cells are as soft as primitive eukaryotes/amoebae and that differentiated tissue cells can be two orders of magnitude stiffer than ES cells. Soft ES cells become stiff as they differentiate into tissue cells of the complex multicellular organisms to match their microenvironment stiffness. We perhaps see in differentiation of ES cells (derived from inner cell mass cells) the echo of those early evolutionary events. Early soft unicellular organisms might have evolved to stiffen their cytoskeleton to protect their structural integrity from external mechanical stresses while being able to maintain form, to change shape, and to move.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health of US (Grant GM072744) and funds from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Ning Wang acknowledges the support from the Hoeft Endowed Professorship in Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The authors thank former and current lab members for their experimental findings that have contributed to the formation of the current postulate.
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Chen, J., Wang, N. Tissue cell differentiation and multicellular evolution via cytoskeletal stiffening in mechanically stressed microenvironments. Acta Mech. Sin. 35, 270–274 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-018-0814-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-018-0814-8