Multicellular Systems - Molecular Theory of the Living Cell - page 520

Self-Replication

< -------------------------------- > Diachronic Biology
Semantic Biology
Biosemiotics
Biognergetics
EvoDevo Biology

Synchronic Biology

Fig. 15.3 A classification of biology into three branches, two of which (synchronic and diachronic
biologies) may be viewed as the complementary aspects of the third (semantic biology,
biosemiotics, biognergetics, or EvoDevo biology). “Gnergy” is defined as the complementary
union of information (gn-) and energy ( ergy) in analogy to light being the complementary union

of waves and particles (Sect. 2.3.2 ) , and “biognergetics” is the study of living processes viewed as
being driven ultimately by gnergy or its discrete units, gnergons

agreement with (Hoffmeyer 1996, 2008, Pattee 2008). These theoretical
developments coincide with the recent trend in experimental biology to integrate
developmental biology and evolutionary biology, the trend often referred to as
“evolutionary developmental biology” (EvoDevo) or “developmental evolutionary
biology” (Carroll 2006, Kirschner and Gerhart 1998, West-Eberhard 1998, 2003).
The newly emerging biology that attempts to integrate the traditionally independent
developmental biology and evolutionary biology into a coherent system of knowl-
edge and applications has been given numerous names by independent authors,
some of which are listed in the last row of Table 15.3 . The last row of Table 15.3 can
also be represented diagrammatically as shown in Fig. 15.3 , which highlights self-
replication as the single most important process that glues together all of the three
branches of biology.

15.5 The Dissipative Structure Theory of Morphogenesis

Morphogenesis is a dynamic process consisting of many component processes
taking place in an organism coordinated in space and time. In short,
Morphogenesis is a dissipaton composed of a set of component dissipatons that are
organized in space and time.

(15.5)

The dissipative structure- or dissipaton-based approaches to cell biology
described in the previous chapters (e.g., Sects. 3.1 , 9.1 , and 12.4 ) suggest the
following set of generalizations as theoretical guides for formulating molecular
mechanisms underlying morphogenesis:

1. There are two classes of structures in the Universe - equilibrium structures
( equilibrons ) and dissipative structures ( dissipatons )(Sects. 3.1 , 9.1 ). The key
difference between equilibrons and dissipatons is that the former can exist without
using up free energy while the latter requires continuous dissipation of free