The Neoplasia as embryological phenomenon and its implication in the animal evolution and the origin of cancer. III. The role of flagellated cell fusion in the formation of the first animal and evolutionary clues to the Warburg effect

TL;DR

This paper explores the evolutionary origins of animals and cancer, emphasizing the role of flagellated cell fusion and centrosome regulation, linking early developmental processes to neoplasia and metabolic phenomena like the Warburg effect.

Contribution

It proposes a novel hypothesis that flagellated cell fusion contributed to animal evolution and cancer development, highlighting the deep evolutionary roots of centrosome regulation and metabolic reprogramming.

Findings

Flagellated cell fusion is linked to early animal evolution.

Centrosome amplification may lead to tumorigenesis.

Evolutionary connections between the Warburg effect and neoplasia.

Abstract

Cytasters have been underestimated in terms of their potential relevance to embryonic development and evolution. From the perspective discussed herein, structures such as the multiciliated cells of comb rows and balancers supporting mineralized statoliths and macrocilia in Beroe ovata point to a past event of multiflagellate fusion in the origin of metazoans. These structures, which are unique in evolutionary history, indicate that early animals handled basal bodies and their duplication in a manner consistent with a "developmental program" originated in the Ctenophora. Furthermore, the fact that centrosome amplification leads to spontaneous tumorigenesis suggests that the centrosome regulation process was co-opted into a neoplastic functional module. Multicilia, cilia, and flagella are deeply rooted in the evolution of animals and Neoplasia. The fusion of several flagellated microgametes into a cell with a subsequent phase of zygotic (haplontic) meiosis might have been at the origin of both animal evolution and the neoplastic process. In the Ediacaran ocean, we also encounter evolutionary links between the Warburg effect and Neoplasia.