Cells are the smallest unit of life. Cells in multicellular plants and animals are arranged into tissues, organs and organ systems. Cells. Tissues. Organs. Organ systems. And the organism itself.

This highly evolved, highly orchestrated ability to make genes active or inactive—both genetically and epigenetically—is the key to the success of multicellular plants and animals, including ...

researchers report in the journal Molecular Plant. Surprisingly, many of these multicellular-enabling genes had viral origins ...

For instance, by definition every multicellular organism possesses multiple cells that remain associated following cell division. But while plant and animal species generate at least a dozen ...

If other plant species had similar photoreceptor genes ... and these include the cells of multicellular organisms. (See “Genetics Gifts” below.) A little more than a decade ago, University of Texas at ...

Consequently, many multicellular organisms with symbiotic organs have evolved mechanisms to monitor and punish microbial cheaters. Sachs’s lab has explored this phenomenon as it relates to plant ...