Frataxin & evolution of multicellularity
Loss of frataxin is lethal in multicellular organisms. Why is frataxin necessary for multicellular life? Use of Game-Theoretical Methods in Biochemistry and Biophysics [2008] - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2577752/ "Recently, it has been shown experimentally that stimulation of respiration by frataxin in colon cancer cells reduced growth rate [47]. Thus, cancer can be regarded as a regression to selfish behaviour of cells. Healthy higher organisms possess regulation mechanisms to suppress cancer. However, in early evolution of multicellularity, these mechanisms probably did not yet exist." So that's one reason. Could there be some relationship to osmoregulation? 2020-6-10 Osmoregulation implies maintenance of electrochemical gradients, just as multicellularity implies morphogenesis. Then I remembered Dr Michael Levin's talk on bioelectric fields and morphogenesis: Of course, since comments are turned off I can't make my notes in the YT comment