Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
(E) Intracellular Dissipative Structures (
ic-Dissipatons
) = Functions
4
5
(D) Exergonic Chemical Reactions
3
( C) FSES Conformations
2
(B) Ground-state Conformations
1
(A) Sequences
0
(F) Monomers
Fig. 14.7
The MTLC-based model of biological evolution
: A molecular theory of biological
evolution of unicellular organisms constructed by incorporating the
Zeldovich-Shakhnovich
framework of the
molecular theory of the living cell
(MTLC) developed in this topic. See text for
the explanations to the six key steps proposed above, labeled from 0 through 5. FSES stands for
“Functionally Significant Excited State” as compared to denatured state of proteins;
ic-dissipatons
refers to the intracellular (ic) dissipative structures which are postulated to be the ultimate driving
force for all cell functions and hence synonymous with
intracellular functions
encoded in the
The MTLC-based model of biological evolution is schematically represented in
Fig.
14.7
. The model consists of six nodes, denoted as A through F, and six steps (or
links) from 0 through 5, which can be viewed as causal links:
Step 0
Biological evolution involves two qualitatively distinct processes - (1) the
origin of life or self-replicating systems (also called organisms) out of the primor-
dial chemical soup (see Step 0), and (2) the adaptation and speciation of organisms
(see Steps 1 through 5). The mathematical models of evolution proposed by Huynen
and Nimwegen (1998) and Zeldovich et al. (2007a, b, 2008) do not address the
problem of the origin of life but assume that organisms were already present in the
biosphere. In contrast, the model of evolution described in Fig.
14.7
includes both
the origin of life, Step 0, as presented in Sect.
13.2
, and the process of evolution,
Steps 1 through 5 described throughout this topic.
