tailieunhanh - Báo cáo y học: " Degeneracy: a link between evolvability, robustness and complexity in biological systems"

Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học quốc tế cung cấp cho các bạn kiến thức về ngành y đề tài: Degeneracy: a link between evolvability, robustness and complexity in biological systems. | Whitacre Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling 2010 7 6 http content 7 1 6 THEORETICAL BIOLOGY AND MEDICAL MODELLING RESEARCH Open Access Degeneracy a link between evolvability robustness and complexity in biological systems James M Whitacre Correspondence jwhitacre79@ School of Computer Science University of Birmingham Edgbaston UK 2 BioMed Central Abstract A full accounting of biological robustness remains elusive both in terms of the mechanisms by which robustness is achieved and the forces that have caused robustness to grow over evolutionary time. Although its importance to topics such as ecosystem services and resilience is well recognized the broader relationship between robustness and evolution is only starting to be fully appreciated. A renewed interest in this relationship has been prompted by evidence that mutational robustness can play a positive role in the discovery of adaptive innovations evolvability and evidence of an intimate relationship between robustness and complexity in biology. This paper offers a new perspective on the mechanics of evolution and the origins of complexity robustness and evolvability. Here we explore the hypothesis that degeneracy a partial overlap in the functioning of multi-functional components plays a central role in the evolution and robustness of complex forms. In support of this hypothesis we present evidence that degeneracy is a fundamental source of robustness it is intimately tied to multi-scaled complexity and it establishes conditions that are necessary for system evolvability. Introduction Complex adaptive systems CAS are omnipresent and are at the core of some of society s most challenging and rewarding endeavours. They are also of interest in their own right because of the unique features they exhibit such as high complexity robustness and the capacity to innovate. Especially within biological contexts such as the immune system the brain and gene regulation CAS are extraordinarily .