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> The cells multicellular organisms are constructed from are all shockingly similar. They are not. They vary greatly in structure and function.

• _yb2s 3y ago
  What I said was a matter of opinion, I didn't quantify it in any way, so I'm not sure how you can say that, but I will elaborate more so you have something to really disagree with :-) Sure, of course the different multicellular eukaryotes vary, but the diversity is very low compared to what we see across all life, look at Figure 1 here for example [1]. I am looking at it from the perspective of the structure of the metabolic network, as this is my area of research. There is a huge amount of diversity in the fundamental structures of metabolic networks, types of metabolites and enzymes produced, etc. across all life, but from that perspective the differences between one multicellular eukaryote and another are slight in comparison. Multicellular eukaryotes have evolved very different behaviors, shapes, sizes, etc. from a relatively conserved biochemistry. When taken out of the context of an organism in cell culture, the cells are similar enough that their behavior under diverse experimental conditions can be predicted by nearly identical metabolic models, whereas you would see nothing of the sort with distantly related bacteria- the metabolism can be massively rearranged. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/nmicrobiol201648 https://www.nature.com/articles/nmicrobiol201648
  • deng 3y ago
    You made a broad, almost dismissive generalization from, as it turns out now, a purely macroscopic view. It's like a physicist studying galaxy filaments saying "all galaxies are shockingly similar", because the filaments show more complex structures than individual galaxies.
    • _yb2s 3y ago
      Which is exactly the point- a systems view offers a different perspective than the reductionist view.