Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Laboratoire de Biologie du Développement de Villefranche-sur-mer (LBDV), Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Paris, France.
J Exp Zool B Mol Dev Evol. 2021 Apr;336(3):198-211. doi: 10.1002/jez.b.22944. Epub 2020 Apr 19.
Nearly half of the animal phyla contain species that propagate asexually via agametic reproduction, often forming colonies of genetically identical modules, that is, ramets, zooids, or polyps. Clonal reproduction, colony formation, and modular organization have important consequences for many aspects of organismal biology. Theories in ecology, evolution, and development are often based on unitary and, mainly, strictly sexually reproducing organisms, and though colonial animals dominate many marine ecosystems and habitats, recognized concepts for the study of clonal species are often lacking. In this review, we present an overview of the study of colonial and clonal animals, from the historic interests in this subject to modern research in a range of topics, including immunology, stem cell biology, aging, biogeography, and ecology. We attempt to portray the fundamental questions lying behind the biology of colonial animals, focusing on how colonial animals challenge several dogmas in biology as well as the remaining puzzles still to be answered, of which there are many.
近半数的动物门的物种通过无性繁殖的孤雌生殖进行繁殖，常常形成遗传上相同的模块的群体，即克隆繁殖体、群居动物或息肉。无性繁殖、群体形成和模块组织对生物体生物学的许多方面都有重要影响。生态学、进化和发展的理论通常基于单一的、主要是严格有性繁殖的生物体，尽管群居动物在许多海洋生态系统和栖息地中占主导地位，但对于克隆物种的研究公认的概念往往是缺乏的。在这篇综述中，我们从这一主题的历史兴趣到一系列主题的现代研究，包括免疫学、干细胞生物学、衰老、生物地理学和生态学，介绍了群居和克隆动物的研究概述。我们试图描绘出群居动物生物学背后的基本问题，重点关注群居动物如何挑战生物学中的几个教条以及仍然存在的许多尚未解决的难题。
