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

What Dr Nedelcu and Dr Michod did was to look for an antecedent of regA in a single-celled creature, in order to find out what its job was.

ECONOMIST: How to become multicellular

The gene that stops the body cells of Volvox reproducing is called regA. It works by suppressing the production of proteins needed to make new chloroplasts in a cell.

ECONOMIST: How to become multicellular