Niche Emergence As an Autocatalytic Process in the Evolution of Ecosystems
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Molecular Cooperation: a Self-Less Origin of Life N
XVIIIth Intl Conf on Origin of Life 2017 (LPI Contrib. No. 1967) 4122.pdf July 16-21, 2017 at UC San Diego, CA, USA Molecular Cooperation: A Self-less Origin of Life N. Lehman1 1Department of Chemistry, Portland State University * [email protected] Introduction: Molecular cooperation is the obligate dependence of multiple information- bearing molecules on the propagation of the system as a whole. In an RNA world, multiple types of such cooperation would have been possible [1], including simple reaction pathways with more than one informational reactant, polymer strands that interact to form a catalytic whole, cross- catalysis and cyclical-catalysis, a formal autocatalytic set, and perhaps even a hypercycle. I will discuss these various types of molecular cooperation and explore how they differ from “simple” chemistry that may have many reactants but no cooperative component. Reproduction, replication, and recombination: Living systems are characterized by the propagation and proliferation of informational units as a function of time. Szathmáry [2] intro- duced a distinction between replicators and reproducers. Here, I will expand on this difference, tie them into prebiotic chemistry, and emphazise that cooperation must have played a key role in the origins of life, rather than being a later evolutionary invention. Reproduction is the ability of one molecule to catalyze the production of other, similar molecules. Replication is a sub-set of reproduction whereby a template is used to augment the creation of a second molecule from the first, one monomer at a time. Recombination is the swapping of large blocks of genetic infor- mation, rather than a series of unit-by-unit replication events. -
Comment on “Tibor Gánti and Robert Rosen” by Athel Cornish-Bowden
Comment on \Tibor G´anti and Robert Rosen" by Athel Cornish-Bowden Wim Hordijk SmartAnalaytiX.com, Lausanne, Switzerland Mike Steel Biomathematics Research Centre, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand 1. Introduction In a recent article published in this journal [1], a comparison is made between Tibor G´anti's chemoton model and Robert Rosen's (M; R) systems. This com- parison is very insightful indeed. As the author remarks, these models seem to be two contrasting approaches, but upon closer inspection have more in common than one would initially think. At the end of the article, the author also briefly mentions related models, such as autopoietic systems and autocatalytic sets. In particular, autocatalytic sets are presented as follows [1]: \Autocatalytic sets (Kauffman, 1986) are the most different, because all of the others incorporate, at least implicitly, the idea that a min- imal self-organizing system must be small, i.e. that it must have a minimum of components. Kauffman, in contrast, made no such condition, but instead imagined self-organization as a property that might arise spontaneously in a system with enough weakly interact- ing components. As he assumed (reasonably) that the probability that any given component might catalyse a particular condensation reaction would be very small, this inevitably leads to the conclusion that the total number of components must be very large (at least Preprint submitted to Journal of Theoretical Biology October 10, 2015 millions) in order to have certainty that every reaction will have a catalyst." However, work on autocatalytic networks over the past 15 years has clearly established a contrary conclusion: autocatalytic sets of small size are not only predicted, but observed in simulations and the laboratory. -
Topological and Thermodynamic Factors That Influence the Evolution of Small Networks of Catalytic RNA Species
Downloaded from rnajournal.cshlp.org on September 24, 2021 - Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Topological and thermodynamic factors that influence the evolution of small networks of catalytic RNA species JESSICA A.M. YEATES,1 PHILIPPE NGHE,2 and NILES LEHMAN1 1Department of Chemistry, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon 97207, USA 2Laboratoire de Biochimie, École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI Paris), PSL Research University, CNRS UMR 8231, 75231 Paris, France ABSTRACT An RNA-directed recombination reaction can result in a network of interacting RNA species. It is now becoming increasingly apparent that such networks could have been an important feature of the RNA world during the nascent evolution of life on the Earth. However, the means by which such small RNA networks assimilate other available genotypes in the environment to grow and evolve into the more complex networks that are thought to have existed in the prebiotic milieu are not known. Here, we used the ability of fragments of the Azoarcus group I intron ribozyme to covalently self-assemble via genotype-selfish and genotype-cooperative interactions into full-length ribozymes to investigate the dynamics of small (three- and four-membered) networks. We focused on the influence of a three-membered core network on the incorporation of additional nodes, and on the degree and direction of connectivity as single new nodes are added to this core. We confirmed experimentally the predictions that additional links to a core should enhance overall network growth rates, but that the directionality of the link (a “giver” or a “receiver”) impacts the growth of the core itself. -
Chemical Oscillations 1
GENERAL I ARTICLE Chemical Oscillations 1. Basic Principles and Examples Monika Sharma and Pra'Veen Kumar A chemical reaction is usually thought of as coming to gether of reactant molecules to form products. The concen trations of initial components (reactants) decrease, and concentrations of products increase until they reach a well defined state: the equilibrium. This process is accompa nied by a decrease of the system free energy (compared at constant pressure and temperature), until it reaches a mini Monika Shanna is a JRF mum in the equilibrium. Thus, it follows from the nature of at the Protein Science and the law ofmass-action that every simple reaction approaches Engineering Unit, its equilibrium asymptotically, and the evolution of any Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), physico-chemical system leads invariably to the steady Chandigarh. state ofmaximum disorder in the universe. Normally, chemi cal systems approach equilibrium in a smooth, frequently exponential relaxation. Under special circumstances, how ever, coherent behavior such as sustained oscillations are observed and the oscillations of chemical origin have been present as long as life itseH. Such reactions can be studied Praveen Kumar is using mathematical models, the Lotka-Volterra model be pursuing his PhD in ing the earliest and the simplest one. chemical dynamics at Panjab University, 1. Introduction Chandigarh. Every living system contains hundreds of chemical oscillators. Some examples are systems such as circadian clocks and rhyth mic activity -
Universal Motifs and the Diversity of Autocatalytic Systems
Universal motifs and the diversity of autocatalytic systems Alex Blokhuisa,b,c,d,1, David Lacostea, and Philippe Ngheb,1 aGulliver Laboratory, UMR CNRS 7083, Paris Sciences et Lettres University, Paris F-75231, France; bLaboratoire de Biochimie, UMR CNRS 8231, Chimie Biologie et Innovation, Ecole Superieure´ de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la ville de Paris, PSL University, Paris F-75231, France; cGroningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands; and dCentre for Systems Chemistry, Stratingh Institute, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands Edited by Peter Schuster, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, and approved September 1, 2020 (received for review June 30, 2020) Autocatalysis is essential for the origin of life and chemical evo- From this definition, we derive conditions to determine lution. However, the lack of a unified framework so far prevents whether a subnetwork embedded in a larger chemical network a systematic study of autocatalysis. Here, we derive, from basic can be catalytic or autocatalytic. These conditions provide a principles, general stoichiometric conditions for catalysis and auto- mathematical basis to identify minimal motifs, called autocat- catalysis in chemical reaction networks. This allows for a classifica- alytic cores. We found that cores have five fundamental cat- tion of minimal autocatalytic motifs called cores. While all known egories of motifs. They allow classification of all previously autocatalytic systems indeed contain minimal motifs, the classifica- described forms of autocatalysis, and also reveal hitherto uniden- tion also reveals hitherto unidentified motifs. We further examine tified autocatalytic schemes. We then study the kinetic condi- conditions for kinetic viability of such networks, which depends tions, which we call viability conditions, under which autocat- on the autocatalytic motifs they contain and is notably increased alytic networks can appear and be maintained on long timescales. -
Foldamer Hypothesis for the Growth and Sequence Differentiation of Prebiotic Polymers
Foldamer hypothesis for the growth and sequence differentiation of prebiotic polymers Elizaveta Gusevaa,b,c, Ronald N. Zuckermannd, and Ken A. Dilla,b,c,1 aLaufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794; bDepartment of Chemistry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794; cDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794; and dMolecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 Contributed by Ken A. Dill, July 10, 2017 (sent for review December 8, 2016; reviewed by Hue Sun Chan and Steve Harvey) It is not known how life originated. It is thought that prebiotic that autocatalytic chain elongation arises from template-assisted processes were able to synthesize short random polymers. How- ligation and random breakage (13). Autocatalytic templating ever, then, how do short-chain molecules spontaneously grow of the self-replication of peptides has also been shown (14, longer? Also, how would random chains grow more informational 15). These are models of the “preinformational” world before and become autocatalytic (i.e., increasing their own concentra- heteropolymers begin to encode biological sequence–structure tions)? We study the folding and binding of random sequences relationships. of hydrophobic (H) and polar (P) monomers in a computational Another class of models describes a “postinformational” het- model. We find that even short hydrophobic polar (HP) chains can eropolymer world, in which there is already some tendency of collapse into relatively compact structures, exposing hydrophobic chains to evolve. In one such model, it is assumed that polymers surfaces. In this way, they act as primitive versions of today’s pro- serve as their own templates because of the ability of certain het- tein catalysts, elongating other such HP polymers as ribosomes eropolymers to concentrate their own precursors (16–19). -
Universal Motifs and the Diversity of Autocatalytic Systems
Universal motifs and the diversity of autocatalytic systems Alex Blokhuisa,b,c,d,1, David Lacostea, and Philippe Ngheb,1 aGulliver Laboratory, UMR CNRS 7083, Paris Sciences et Lettres University, Paris F-75231, France; bLaboratoire de Biochimie, UMR CNRS 8231, Chimie Biologie et Innovation, Ecole Superieure´ de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la ville de Paris, PSL University, Paris F-75231, France; cGroningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands; and dCentre for Systems Chemistry, Stratingh Institute, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands Edited by Peter Schuster, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, and approved September 1, 2020 (received for review June 30, 2020) Autocatalysis is essential for the origin of life and chemical evo- From this definition, we derive conditions to determine lution. However, the lack of a unified framework so far prevents whether a subnetwork embedded in a larger chemical network a systematic study of autocatalysis. Here, we derive, from basic can be catalytic or autocatalytic. These conditions provide a principles, general stoichiometric conditions for catalysis and auto- mathematical basis to identify minimal motifs, called autocat- catalysis in chemical reaction networks. This allows for a classifica- alytic cores. We found that cores have five fundamental cat- tion of minimal autocatalytic motifs called cores. While all known egories of motifs. They allow classification of all previously autocatalytic systems indeed contain minimal motifs, the classifica- described forms of autocatalysis, and also reveal hitherto uniden- tion also reveals hitherto unidentified motifs. We further examine tified autocatalytic schemes. We then study the kinetic condi- conditions for kinetic viability of such networks, which depends tions, which we call viability conditions, under which autocat- on the autocatalytic motifs they contain and is notably increased alytic networks can appear and be maintained on long timescales. -
Design Principles of Autocatalytic Cycles Constrain Enzyme Kinetics and Force Low Substrate Saturation at Flux Branch Points
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/074641; this version posted January 2, 2017. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-ND 4.0 International license. Design principles of autocatalytic cycles constrain enzyme kinetics and force low substrate saturation at flux branch points Uri Barenholz1, Dan Davidi1, Ed Reznik2,3, Yinon Bar-On1, Niv Antonovsky1, Elad Noor4, and Ron Milo1 1Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, The Weizmann Institute of Science 2Computational Biology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center 3Center for Molecular Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center 4Institue of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich Abstract A set of chemical reactions that require a metabolite to synthesize more of that metabolite is an autocatalytic cycle. Here we show that most of the reactions in the core of central carbon metabolism are part of compact autocatalytic cycles. Such metabolic designs must meet specific conditions to support stable fluxes, hence avoiding depletion of intermediate metabolites. As such, they are subjected to constraints that may seem counter-intuitive: the enzymes of branch reactions out of the cycle must be overexpressed and the affinity of these enzymes to their substrates must be relatively weak. We use recent quantitative proteomics and fluxomics measurements to show that the above conditions hold for functioning cycles in central carbon metabolism of E.coli. This work demonstrates that the topology of a metabolic network can shape kinetic parameters of enzymes and lead to seemingly wasteful enzyme usage. -
Origins of Life: a Problem for Physics
Origins of Life: A Problem for Physics Sara Imari Walker School of Earth and Space Exploration and Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ USA; Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle WA USA E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. The origins of life stands among the great open scientific questions of our time. While a number of proposals exist for possible starting points in the pathway from non-living to living matter, these have so far not achieved states of complexity that are anywhere near that of even the simplest living systems. A key challenge is identifying the properties of living matter that might distinguish living and non-living physical systems such that we might build new life in the lab. This review is geared towards covering major viewpoints on the origin of life for those new to the origin of life field, with a forward look towards considering what it might take for a physical theory that universally explains the phenomenon of life to arise from the seemingly disconnected array of ideas proposed thus far. The hope is that a theory akin to our other theories in fundamental physics might one day emerge to explain the phenomenon of life, and in turn finally permit solving its origins. arXiv:1705.08073v1 [q-bio.PE] 23 May 2017 CONTENTS 2 Contents 1 Introduction 2 2 Knowns and unknowns in solving the origin of life 4 2.1 One planet, one sample: The significance of anthropic bias . .5 2.2 Two paths to a solution . -
Autocatalysis As the Natural Philosophy Underlying Complexity Andbiological Evolution
Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems 9(1), 1-22, 2011 AUTOCATALYSIS AS THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY UNDERLYING COMPLEXITY AND BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION Güngör Gündüz* Department of Chemical Engineering, Middle East Technical University Ankara, Turkey Regular article Received: 28. March 2011. Accepted: 27. June 2011. ABSTRACT The importance and different aspects of autocatalysis in evolution was analyzed. The behaviour of autocatalytic reactions mainly the Lotka-Volterra and the Schlögl equations were discussed in terms of phase change, entropy, and their oscillation frequency. The increase of complexity as the general direction of evolution was examined on some patterns in terms of both their entropy and information content. In addition, the relation between stability and functionality, stability and cohesion were discussed. It was concluded that evolution drifts in the direction of increasing complexity as a kind of natural philosophy to counteract the increase of entropy in the universe. KEY WORDS autocatalysis, entropy, evolution, complexity, information, oscillation frequency, cohesion CLASSIFICATION JEL: C02, Z19 PACS: 01.70.+w, 89.75.-k *Corresponding author, η: [email protected]; (90) 312 210 26 16; Kimya Mühendisliği Bölümü, Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Ankara 06531, Turkey G. Gündüz INTRODUCTION The theory of biological evolution did not only have a spectacular impact on human knowledge of biological systems, but also founded a close relationship between many disciplines of science such as, chemistry, physics, geology, and philosophy; yet sociology, psychology, economy, and similar other fields use evolutionary concepts to evaluate long term changes. In early 19th century physical and chemical principles had not yet been strongly introduced into biology, and Darwin could make his reasoning on some philosophical and observational facts. -
Entropy Generation in MHD Casson Fluid Flow with Variable Heat Conductance and Thermal Conductivity Over Non-Linear Bi-Direction
www.nature.com/scientificreports OPEN Entropy generation in MHD Casson fuid fow with variable heat conductance and thermal conductivity over non‑linear bi‑directional stretching surface Muhammad Sohail1, Zahir Shah 2*, Asifa Tassaddiq 3, Poom Kumam 4,5* & Prosun Roy6 This consideration highlights the belongings of momentum, entropy generation, species and thermal dissemination on boundary layer fow (BLF) of Casson liquid over a linearly elongating surface considering radiation and Joule heating efects signifcant. Transportation of thermal and species are ofered by using the temperature‑dependent models of thermal conductivity and mass difusion coefcient. Arising problem appear in the form of nonlinear partial diferential equations (NPDEs) against the conservation laws of mass, momentum, thermal and species transportation. Appropriate renovation transfgures the demonstrated problem into ordinary diferential equations. Numerical solutions of renovated boundary layer ordinary diferential equations (ODEs) are attained by a profcient and reliable technique namely optimal homotopy analysis method (OHAM). A graphical and tabular interpretation is given for convergence of analytic solutions through error table and fow behavior of convoluted physical parameters on calculated solutions are presented and explicated in this examination. Reliability and efectiveness of the anticipated algorithm is established by comparing the results of present contemplation as a limiting case of available work, and it is found to be in excellent settlement. Decline in fuid velocity and enhancement in thermal and species transportation is recorded against the fuctuating values of Hartman number. Also reverse comportment of Prandtl number and radiation parameter is portrayed. Moreover, it is conveyed that supplementing values of the magnetic parameter condenses the fuid velocity and upsurges the thermal and concentration distributions. -
Exploring the Origins of Life with Autocatalytic Sets
Physical Sciences︱ The COOLscience Club Exploring the origins of life with autocatalytic sets How did we get here? ne of the most popular are still those in the fullerene family, This question has plagued theories about the beginnings which are strange, football-shaped philosophers, scientists and Oof our universe is the Big networks of carbon atoms, but even individuals alike for hundreds, Bang theory. This is the idea that the largest of these contains just the universe started as an infinitely 70 atoms. if not thousands of years. How did our complex chemistry evolve? The COOL Science Club explore questions around Evolved species, such as dense and warm point that suddenly the origin of life. humans, are incredibly complex violently expanded within just a few Fullerenes aren’t found everywhere. systems, even down to the fractions of a second. While the exact Many planets only have very simple microscopic cellular level, beginning of the universe, what molecules, composed of less than structures. Understanding how such in 1971. Later on, the theory was and understanding our own happened within the first trillionth of 10 atoms. So how did such simple sets work might not just give us a further developed by him and others, origins of life and how our Professor Stuart Kauffman and a trillionth of a second, still has many chemical building blocks come deeper understanding of the origins of with computational and experimental collaborators are working on the theory DNA came to be what we mysteries, scientists now have many together to create the complexity our life but pave the way to new living studies looking to investigate and of autocatalytic sets.