Turbulent coherent structures and early life below the Kolmogorov scale
| Autor: | Madison S. Krieger, Martin A. Nowak, Sam Sinai |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
Population dynamics Science Origin of Life Population structure General Physics and Astronomy FOS: Physical sciences 01 natural sciences Article Biophysical Phenomena General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology 010305 fluids & plasmas Diffusion Motion 03 medical and health sciences symbols.namesake Abiogenesis 0103 physical sciences Lagrangian coherent structures Statistical physics Quantitative Biology - Populations and Evolution lcsh:Science Multidisciplinary Extinction Viscosity Turbulence Evolutionary theory Kolmogorov microscales Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE) Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) Water Physics - Fluid Dynamics General Chemistry Models Theoretical Biological Evolution Early life 030104 developmental biology Group selection FOS: Biological sciences Hydrodynamics symbols lcsh:Q Rheology Algorithms |
| Zdroj: | Nature Communications, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-14 (2020) Nature Communications |
| ISSN: | 2041-1723 |
| Popis: | Major evolutionary transitions, including the emergence of life, likely occurred in aqueous environments. While the role of water’s chemistry in early life is well studied, the effects of water’s ability to manipulate population structure are less clear. Population structure is known to be critical, as effective replicators must be insulated from parasites. Here, we propose that turbulent coherent structures, long-lasting flow patterns which trap particles, may serve many of the properties associated with compartments — collocalization, division, and merging — which are commonly thought to play a key role in the origins of life and other evolutionary transitions. We substantiate this idea by simulating multiple proposed metabolisms for early life in a simple model of a turbulent flow, and find that balancing the turnover times of biological particles and coherent structures can indeed enhance the likelihood of these metabolisms overcoming extinction either via parasitism or via a lack of metabolic support. Our results suggest that group selection models may be applicable with fewer physical and chemical constraints than previously thought, and apply much more widely in aqueous environments. Models of the origin of life generally require a mechanism to structure emerging populations. Here, Krieger et al. develop spatial models showing that coherent structures arising in turbulent flows in aquatic environments could have provided compartments that facilitated the origin of life. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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