TY - JOUR T1 - Animal Cell Differentiation Patterns Suppress Somatic Evolution A1 - Pepper, John W A1 - Sprouffske, Kathleen A1 - Maley, Carlo C Y1 - 2007/12/14 N2 - Author SummaryDarwinian natural selection and evolution is usually studied in populations of organisms. However, it is possible, in principle, in any population of cells, including the population of cells that constitutes a multicellular animal. Such “somatic” evolution among cells within an organism tends to reduce their cooperation, and thus to threaten the integrity of the organism. It is believed that this problem must have been solved somehow to allow the evolutionary emergence of multicellular animals. However, it has also been suggested that some pervasive pathologies reflect the persistence of some level of somatic evolution Here, we propose that a well-known pattern of ongoing cell differentiation in the mature tissues of animals functions to suppress somatic evolution. We test his hypothesis using a computer simulation of cell population dynamics and evolution. The results are consistent with our hypothesis, and suggest that cancer and senescent decline with aging may be attributable to a failure of this mechanism to completely suppress cellular evolution. JF - PLOS Computational Biology JA - PLOS Computational Biology VL - 3 IS - 12 UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030250 SP - e250 EP - PB - Public Library of Science M3 - doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030250 ER -