Microbial rhodopsins are diverse photoreceptive proteins containing a retinal chromophore
and are found in all domains of cellular life and are even encoded in genomes of viruses …

The generation of organismal form—morphogenesis—arises from forces produced at the
cellular level. In animal cells, much of this force is produced by the actin cytoskeleton. Here …

Animals and fungi have radically distinct morphologies, yet both evolved within the same
eukaryotic supergroup: Opisthokonta,. Here we reconstructed the trajectory of genetic …

How animals evolved from a single-celled ancestor, transitioning from a unicellular lifestyle
to a coordinated multicellular entity, remains a fascinating question. Key events in this …

Taxis orientation is common in microorganisms, and it provides feasible strategies to
operate active colloids as small‐scale robots. Collective taxes involve numerous units that …

The textbook view of cell division terminates with the final separation of the two daughter
cells in the process called abscission. However, in contrast to this classical view, a variety of …

Mechanical forces are integral to development—from the earliest stages of embryogenesis
to the construction and differentiation of complex organs. Advances in imaging and …

Glutamate (Glu) is the primary excitatory transmitter in the mammalian brain. But, we know
little about the evolutionary history of this adaptation, including the selection of l-glutamate …

In this paper, we follow the evolutionary origins of cells as unicellular organisms and their
evolution towards multicellularity, with a focus on plants and animals, both of which have two …

All life is cellular, starting some 4 billion years ago with the emergence of the first cells. In
order to survive their early evolution in the face of an extremely challenging environment, the …