The Neoplasia as embryological phenomenon and its implication in the animal evolution and the origin of cancer. I. A presentation of the neoplastic process and its connection with cell fusion and germline formation

TL;DR

This paper explores how neoplastic processes, influenced by embryological and biophysical factors, played a crucial role in animal evolution and the origin of cancer, emphasizing the evolutionary significance of cell fusion and germline formation.

Contribution

It proposes that neoplasia served as an evolutionary engine for embryogenesis and body shape diversity, linking cancer processes with early developmental mechanisms.

Findings

Neoplasia contributed to the formation of the first embryo.

Neoplastic processes influenced the evolution of animal body plans.

Developmental pathways of neoplasia originated in early animal groups like ctenophores.

Abstract

The decisive role of Embryology in understanding the evolution of animal forms is founded and deeply rooted in the history of science. It is recognized that the emergence of multicellularity would not have been possible without the formation of the first embryo. We speculate that biophysical phenomena and the surrounding environment of the Ediacaran ocean were instrumental in co-opting a neoplastic functional module (NFM) within the nucleus of the first zygote. Thus, the neoplastic process, understood here as a biological phenomenon with profound embryologic implications, served as the evolutionary engine that favored the formation of the first embryo and cancerous diseases and allowed to coherently create and recreate body shapes in different animal groups during evolution. In this article, we provide a deep reflection on the Physics of the first embryogenesis and its contribution to the exaptation of additional NFM components, such as the extracellular matrix. Knowledge of NFM components, structure, dynamics, and origin advances our understanding of the numerous possibilities and different innovations that embryos have undergone to create animal forms via Neoplasia during evolutionary radiation. The developmental pathways of Neoplasia have their origins in ctenophores and were consolidated in mammals and other apical groups.