Evolution Darwinian

Life is a self-sustained chemical system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution. ... 

Fig. 1.5 Schematic representation of the evolution of life from its precursors, on the basis of the definition of life given by the authors. If bioenergetic mechanisms have developed via autonomous systems, the thermodynamic basis for the beginning of the archiving of information, and thus for a one-polymer world such as the RNA world , has been set up. Several models for this transition have been discussed. This phase of development is possibly the starting point for the process of Darwinian evolution (with reproduction, variation and heredity), but still without any separation between genotype and phenotype. According to the authors definition, life begins in exactly that moment when the genetic code comes into play, i.e., in the transition from a one-polymer world to a two-polymer world . The last phase, open-ended evolution, then follows. After Ruiz-Mirazo et al. (2004)...

The authors obtained an RNA ligase ribozyme using the method of in vitro evolution . Here, macromolecules are allowed to go through a series of synthetic cycles, which are followed by a proliferation phase, mutation and selection. As in Darwinian evolution, the goal is to carry out laboratory selection of molecules with certain required properties. 

Some of the terms used in classical thermodynamics which refer to equilibrium states and closed systems have become important outside the boundaries of physics one example is the term adapted state in Darwinian evolution theory, which represents a type of equilibrium state between the organism and its environment. 

Szostak et al. worked on the basis of a simple cellular system which can replicate itself autonomously and which is subject to Darwinian evolution. This simple protocell consists of an RNA replicase, which replicates in a self-replicating vesicle. If this system can take up small molecules from its environment (a type of feeding ), i.e., precursors which are required for membrane construction and RNA synthesis, the protocells will grow and divide. The result should be the formation of improved replicases. Improved chances of survival are only likely if a sequence, coded by RNA, leads to better growth or replication of membrane components, e.g., by means of a ribozyme which catalyses the synthesis of amphiphilic lipids (Figs. 10.8 and 10.9). We can expect further important advances in the near future from this combination ( RNA + lipid world ). 

Fig. 10.8 The importance of the vesicle for the Darwinian evolution of a replicase. Compart-mentalisation ensures that related molecules tend to stay together. This permits superior mutant replicases (grey) to replicate more effectively than the parent (black) replicases. The evolutionary advantage spreads in the form of vesicles with superior replicase molecules, leading with a greater probability to vesicles with at least two replicase molecules (or a replicase and a matrix molecule). Vesicles with less than two replicase molecules are struck out their progeny cannot continue the RNA self-replication. Thus, the vesicles with better replicases form the growing fraction of vesicles which carry forward the replicase activity (Szostak et al., 2001)...

There are many potential molecules and possible routes to the synthesis of biomolecules that might form the basis of a primitive metabolism but thus far we have not addressed the question of information propagation or Darwinian evolution. Information storage must be contained within a sequence, such as words in a sentence or the base sequences within the genetic code, and that requires a polymerisation reaction, which is preferably autocatalytic to reproduce the information accurately. Peptides and nucleotides have this property, although the condensation reaction joining them together needs to be activated. 

Blavatsky s main polemical purpose in Isis Unveiled was to undermine the materialist nature of Darwinian evolution and to build a spiritual system based upon an evolutionary theory revamped to include the life force and spiritual goals. She defined the terms of her argument by articulating an emana-tionist perspective against an orthodox evolutionist interpretation ... 

The term evolutionary algorithm (EA) refers to a class of population based metaheuristic (probabilistic) optimization algorithms which imitate the Darwinian evolution ( survival ofthe fittest ). However, the biological terms are used as metaphors rather than in their exact meaning. The population of individuals denotes a set of solution candidates or points of the solution space. Each individual represents a point in the search space which is coded in the individual s representation (genome). The fitness of an individual is usually defined on the basis of the value of the objective function and determines its chances to stay in the population and to be used to generate new solution points. 

The design of any DCC experiment involves several components, loosely aligned with the components of a system undergoing Darwinian evolution (Fig. 1.4) (1) a library of building blocks (components of a population), (2) a reversible reaction (analogous to a mutagenesis method or reproduction), (3) a selection mechanism, and (4) an analytical method. The relatively short history of DCC has seen many innovative approaches to... 

Occasional inheritable mutations yield an organism that is better suited for survival in an ecological niche and progeny that are preferentially selected. This process of mutation and selection is the basis for the Darwinian evolution that led from the first cell to all the organisms that now exist, and it explains the fundamental similarity of all living organisms. 

A history of the development of science, with special emphasis on Darwinian evolution, by an eminent Darwin scholar. 

Kimura, M. (1983). The Neutral Theory of Evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. King, J.L. Jukes, T.H. (1969). Non-Darwinian evolution Random fixation of selectively neutral variants. Science 164, 788-798. 

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