Editing Macroevolution (section)

=== Evolution of multicellularity ===
{{Main|Multicellular organism}}
The evolution of multicellular organisms is one of the major breakthroughs in evolution. The first step of converting a unicellular organism into a [[Animal|metazoan]] (a multicellular organism) is to allow cells to attach to each other. This can be achieved by one or a few [[mutation]]s. In fact, many [[bacteria]] form multicellular assemblies, e.g. [[cyanobacteria]] or [[myxobacteria]]. Another species of bacteria, ''Jeongeupia sacculi'', form well-ordered sheets of cells, which ultimately develop into a bulbous structure.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Datta |first1=Sayantan |last2=Ratcliff |first2=William C |date=2022-10-11 |title=Illuminating a new path to multicellularity |journal=eLife |volume=11 |pages=e83296 |doi=10.7554/eLife.83296 |pmid=36217823 |issn=2050-084X |pmc=9553208 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Mizuno |first1=Kouhei |last2=Maree |first2=Mais |last3=Nagamura |first3=Toshihiko |last4=Koga |first4=Akihiro |last5=Hirayama |first5=Satoru |last6=Furukawa |first6=Soichi |last7=Tanaka |first7=Kenji |last8=Morikawa |first8=Kazuya |date=2022-10-11 |editor-last=Goldstein |editor-first=Raymond E |editor2-last=Weigel |editor2-first=Detlef |title=Novel multicellular prokaryote discovered next to an underground stream |journal=eLife |volume=11 |pages=e71920 |doi=10.7554/eLife.71920 |pmid=36217817 |pmc=9555858 |issn=2050-084X |doi-access=free }}</ref> Similarly, unicellular yeast cells can become multicellular by a single mutation in the ACE2 gene, which causes the cells to form a branched multicellular form.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ratcliff |first1=William C. |last2=Fankhauser |first2=Johnathon D. |last3=Rogers |first3=David W. |last4=Greig |first4=Duncan |last5=Travisano |first5=Michael |date=May 2015 |title=Origins of multicellular evolvability in snowflake yeast |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=6102 |doi=10.1038/ncomms7102 |issn=2041-1723 |pmc=4309424 |pmid=25600558|bibcode=2015NatCo...6.6102R }}</ref>