Principles and Mechanisms of Biological Evolution - Molecular Theory of the Living Cell - page 504

Table 14.10 Some of the key experimental data on proteomics and comparative genomics that are
relevant to modeling evolution and their possible explanations provided by the Molecular Theory
of the Living Cell (MTLC) developed in this topic and by other models of evolution

Explanations provided by

Hunen and van
Nimwegen (1998)

Zeldovich et al.
(2007a, b, 2008) Observations MTLC (this topic)

1. Protein stability
distribution
(Fig. 12.26 )

Universal principle of
thermal excitations
(Sect. 12.12 )
(qunatitative) (see
Fig. 12.25f )

Not explained Not explained

2. Power-law
distribution of gene
family sizes
(Eq. 14.31 and
Fig. 14.6 )

Gene families as
dissipatons and as
functional units (Sects.
3.1.5 and 14.7)
(qualitative)

Gene families as
coherent units; i.e.,
genes in a family are
affected in the same
way (quantitative)

Gene sequence
Conformations
Organismic
Survival
Species
(Sect. 14.7 )
(quantitative)

3. Variable genome
sizes (Fig. 14.6 )

Law of requisite variety
(Sects. 5.3.2 and 14.7)
(qualitative)

Not explained Not explained

4. Huynen-Nimwegen
equation (Eq. 14.31)

The exponent g as a
quantitative measure
of the active
complexity of an
organism (Sects. 5.2.3
and 14.7) (qualitative)

Not explained Not explained

5. Compatibility with
the model of
evolution proposed
in Fig. 14.7

Compatible with nodes A,
B, C, D and E

Compatible with nodes
A and E

Compatible
with nodes
A and E

Based on these principles and assumptions, it is here suggested that the
exponent, g , of the Huynen-van Nimwegen plot of an organism (Fig. 14.6 )
represents a quantitative measure of the active complexity of the organism, that
is, the larger the value of g , the more actively complex the organism is, or the more
complex is the environment under which the organism can survive.
In Table 14.10 , a brief comparison is provided among the various models of
biological evolution in terms of their ability to account for some of the key
experimental findings in proteomics and comparative genomics that any viable
models of biological evolution should be able to account for. The model of
evolution described in this topic (to be referred to as the MTLC-based model ,
where MTLC stands for “molecular theory of the living cell”) provides
explanations for all of the four key observations listed above - one quantitative
and three qualitative. In contrast, the models of Huynen and Nimwegen (1998) and
Zeldovich et al. (2007a, b, 2008) both account for only one of the four observations,
namely, the power-law distributions of gene family sizes, Eq. 14.31.