That keeps Chlamydomonas from wasting resources during hard times, increasing its likelihood of reproducing over the long haul.

ECONOMIST: How to become multicellular

In Chlamydomonas, the gene only gets switched on when environmental conditions are poor for instance, when sunlight or nutrients are scarce.

ECONOMIST: How to become multicellular

By searching for genetic sequences similar to regA in the burgeoning databases of genes that now exist, they found one in a unicellular alga called Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

ECONOMIST: How to become multicellular