scholarly journals Onset of natural selection in auto-catalytic heteropolymers

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexei V. Tkachenko ◽  
Sergei Maslov
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Information Entropy ◽  
Physical System ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Living Matter ◽  
Spontaneous Reduction ◽  
Nano Structures ◽  
Opening Up

Reduction of information entropy along with ever-increasing complexity are among the key signatures of living matter. Understanding the onset of such behavior in early prebiotic world is essential for solving the problem of origins of life. To elucidate this transition, we study a theoretical model of information-storing heteropolymers capable of template-assisted ligation and subjected to cyclic non-equilibrium driving forces. We discover that this simple physical system undergoes a spontaneous reduction of the information entropy due to the competition of chains for constituent monomers. This natural-selection-like process ultimately results in the survival of a limited subset of polymer sequences. Importantly, the number of surviving sequences remains exponentially large, thus opening up the possibility of further increase in complexity due to Darwinian evolution. We also propose potential experimental implementations of our model using either biopolymers or artificial nano-structures.

Evidence and Metaphor in Evolutionary Archaeology

2002 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas B. Bamforth
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Optimal Foraging ◽  
Optimal Foraging Theory ◽  
Foraging Theory ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Archaeology ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Archaeological Work

Evolutionary theory and terminology are widely used in recent archaeological work, and many evolutionary archaeologists have argued that the integration of such theory and terminology is essential to the future of our field. This paper considers evolutionary archaeology from two perspectives. First, it examines substantive claims that archaeology can study the operation of Darwinian evolution, either through a reliance on optimal-foraging theory or by linking the process of natural selection to archaeological data. It concludes that there are serious problems with both of these claims on Darwin: the relation between evolution and foraging theory has never been documented, and midrange arguments linking selection and archaeological data are unsustainable. Second, it argues that archaeologists rely metaphorically on evolutionary terminology to help make sense out of archaeological data. Although the use of evolutionary metaphor can be, and has been, problematic, it also offers a powerful conceptual framework for our research. However, this framework is only of one of a number of comparable frameworks that have been offered to our field, as a comparison of systems archaeology and evolutionary archaeology shows.

scholarly journals Cancer and intercellular cooperation

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. 170470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Bertolaso ◽  
Anna Maria Dieli
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Individual Organism ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Somatic Evolution ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
Intercellular Cooperation ◽  
Multicellular Organisms ◽  
Different Levels

The major transitions approach in evolutionary biology has shown that the intercellular cooperation that characterizes multicellular organisms would never have emerged without some kind of multilevel selection. Relying on this view, the Evolutionary Somatic view of cancer considers cancer as a breakdown of intercellular cooperation and as a loss of the balance between selection processes that take place at different levels of organization (particularly single cell and individual organism). This seems an elegant unifying framework for healthy organism, carcinogenesis, tumour proliferation, metastasis and other phenomena such as ageing. However, the gene-centric version of Darwinian evolution, which is often adopted in cancer research, runs into empirical problems: proto-tumoural and tumoural features in precancerous cells that would undergo ‘natural selection’ have proved hard to demonstrate; cells are radically context-dependent, and some stages of cancer are poorly related to genetic change. Recent perspectives propose that breakdown of intercellular cooperation could depend on ‘fields’ and other higher-level phenomena, and could be even mutations independent. Indeed, the field would be the context, allowing (or preventing) genetic mutations to undergo an intra-organism process analogous to natural selection. The complexities surrounding somatic evolution call for integration between multiple incomplete frameworks for interpreting intercellular cooperation and its pathologies.

scholarly journals Evo-devo and accounting for Darwin's endless forms

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1574) ◽  
pp. 2069-2075 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul M. Brakefield
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Common Ancestry ◽  
Developmental Constraints ◽  
Evolutionary Diversification ◽  
New Genes ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Regulatory Machinery ◽  
Evo Devo ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Trait Space

Evo-devo has led to dramatic advances in our understanding of how the processes of development can contribute to explaining patterns of evolutionary diversification that underlie the endless forms of animal life on the Earth. This is increasingly the case not only for the origins of evolutionary novelties that permit new functions and open up new adaptive zones, but also for the processes of evolutionary tinkering that occur within the subsequent radiations of related species. Evo-devo has time and again yielded spectacular examples of Darwin's notions of common ancestry and of descent with modification. It has also shown that the evolution of endless forms is more about the evolution of the regulatory machinery of ancient genes than the origin and elaboration of new genes. Evolvability, especially with respect to the capacity of a developmental system to evolve and to generate the variation in form for natural selection to screen, has become a pivotal focus of evo-devo. As a consequence, a balancing of the concept of endless forms in morphospace with a greater awareness of the potential for developmental constraints and bias is becoming more general. The prospect of parallel horizons opening up for the evolution of behaviour is exciting; in particular, does Sean Carroll's phrase referring to old genes learning new tricks in the evolution of endless forms apply equally as well to patterns of diversity and disparity in behavioural trait-space?

scholarly journals Ligation of random oligomers leads to emergence of autocatalytic sequence network

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick W. Kudella ◽  
Alexei V. Tkachenko ◽  
Sergei Maslov ◽  
Dieter Braun
Keyword(s):  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Information Entropy ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Temperature Oscillation ◽  
Temperature Cycling ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Dependent Sequence ◽  
Sequence Patterns ◽  
Plausible Mechanism ◽  
Selection For

ABSTRACTThe emergence of longer information-carrying and functional nucleotide polymers from random short strands was a major stepping stone at the dawn of life. But the formation of those polymers under temperature oscillation required some form of selection. A plausible mechanism is template-based ligation where theoretical work already suggested a reduction in information entropy.Here, we show how nontrivial sequence patterns emerge in a system of random 12mer DNA sequences subject to enzyme-based templated ligation reaction and temperature cycling. The strands acted both as a template and substrates of the reaction and thereby formed longer oligomers. The selection for templating sequences leads to the development of a multiscale ligation landscape. A position-dependent sequence pattern emerged with a segregation into mutually complementary pools of A-rich and T-rich sequences. Even without selection for function, the base pairing of DNA with ligation showed a dynamics resembling Darwinian evolution.

scholarly journals Did natural selection select for true religious beliefs?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
HANS VAN EYGHEN ◽  
CHRISTOPHER T. BENNETT
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Debunking Arguments ◽  
Debunking Arguments ◽  
Evolutionary Debunking

Abstract Although it is commonly accepted that Darwinian evolution could select for true common-sense beliefs, it is altogether less certain that the same can be said for other classes of beliefs, such as moral or religious beliefs. This issue takes centre stage in debates concerning evolutionary debunking arguments against religious beliefs, where the rationality of beliefs is often dependent upon their production by an evolved faculty that is sensitive to truth. In this article, we consider whether evolution selected for true religious beliefs. We begin by highlighting the relevance of this question for broader philosophy of religion, then present a dialogue of arguments and counter-arguments for and against the proposition that true religious beliefs generate pragmatic success and hence can be selected for by evolution.

Private club or public marketplace?

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-232
Author(s):  
Michael Buchner
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Competitive Environment ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Stock Exchanges ◽  
The Public ◽  
Property Rights Theory ◽  
John Moore

Abstract:This paper contributes to the literature on the organisation and governance of stock exchanges by taking the perspective of property rights theory. Focusing on the examples of the London and Berlin stock exchanges, which followed quite opposite paths of development during the second half of the 19th century, the paper provides three major results. First, it shows that historical stock exchanges were much more characterised by institutional variety and evolution than recent economic accounts tend to suggest. Secondly, drawing on a theoretical model developed by Oliver Hart and John Moore, the paper argues that differences in membership structure as well as in the competitive environment constituted the main driving forces behind organisational change both in London and in Berlin. Finally, it is claimed that future research should take the public dimension of Continental bourses more strongly into account, which, for example, has important implications for the question of whether stock exchanges established property rights in prices or not.

scholarly journals Mendel and Darwin: untangling a persistent enigma

Heredity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-273
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Fairbanks
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Heritable Variation ◽  
Outright Rejection ◽  
Scientific Environment ◽  
Final Letter

AbstractMendel and Darwin were contemporaries, with much overlap in their scientifically productive years. Available evidence shows that Mendel knew much about Darwin, whereas Darwin knew nothing of Mendel. Because of the fragmentary nature of this evidence, published inferences regarding Mendel’s views on Darwinian evolution are contradictory and enigmatic, with claims ranging from enthusiastic acceptance to outright rejection. The objective of this review is to examine evidence from Mendel’s published and private writings on evolution and Darwin, and the influence of the scientific environment in which he was immersed. Much of this evidence lies in Mendel’s handwritten annotations in his copies of Darwin’s books, which this review scrutinises in detail. Darwin’s writings directly influenced Mendel’s classic 1866 paper, and his letters to Nägeli. He commended and criticised Darwin on specific issues pertinent to his research, including the provisional hypothesis of pangenesis, the role of pollen in fertilisation, and the influence of “conditions of life” on heritable variation. In his final letter to Nägeli, Mendel proposed a Darwinian scenario for natural selection using the same German term for “struggle for existence” as in his copies of Darwin’s books. His published and private scientific writings are entirely objective, devoid of polemics or religious allusions, and address evolutionary questions in a manner consistent with that of his scientific contemporaries. The image that emerges of Mendel is of a meticulous scientist who accepted the tenets of Darwinian evolution, while privately pinpointing aspects of Darwin’s views of inheritance that were not supported by Mendel’s own experiments.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document