Energy, genes and evolution: introduction to an evolutionary synthesis

TY - JOUR

T1 - Energy, genes and evolution: introduction to an evolutionary synthesis

AU - Lane, Nick

AU - Martin, William F.

AU - Raven, John A.

AU - Allen, John F.

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - Life is the harnessing of chemical energy in such away that the energy-harnessing device makes a copy of itself. No energy, no evolution. The 'modern synthesis' of the past century explained evolution in terms of genes, but this is only part of the story. While the mechanisms of natural selection are correct, and increasingly well understood, they do little to explain the actual trajectories taken by life on Earth. From a cosmic perspective-what is the probability of life elsewhere in the Universe, and what are its probable traits?-a gene-based view of evolution says almost nothing. Irresistible geological and environmental changes affected eukaryotes and prokaryotes in very different ways, ones that do not relate to specific genes or niches. Questions such as the early emergence of life, the morphological and genomic constraints on prokaryotes, the singular origin of eukaryotes, and the unique and perplexing traits shared by all eukaryotes but not found in any prokaryote, are instead illuminated by bioenergetics. If nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution, nothing in evolution makes sense except in the light of energetics. This Special Issue of Philosophical Transactions examines the interplay between energy transduction and genome function in the major transitions of evolution, with implications ranging from planetary habitability to human health. We hope that these papers will contribute to a new evolutionary synthesis of energetics and genetics.

AB - Life is the harnessing of chemical energy in such away that the energy-harnessing device makes a copy of itself. No energy, no evolution. The 'modern synthesis' of the past century explained evolution in terms of genes, but this is only part of the story. While the mechanisms of natural selection are correct, and increasingly well understood, they do little to explain the actual trajectories taken by life on Earth. From a cosmic perspective-what is the probability of life elsewhere in the Universe, and what are its probable traits?-a gene-based view of evolution says almost nothing. Irresistible geological and environmental changes affected eukaryotes and prokaryotes in very different ways, ones that do not relate to specific genes or niches. Questions such as the early emergence of life, the morphological and genomic constraints on prokaryotes, the singular origin of eukaryotes, and the unique and perplexing traits shared by all eukaryotes but not found in any prokaryote, are instead illuminated by bioenergetics. If nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution, nothing in evolution makes sense except in the light of energetics. This Special Issue of Philosophical Transactions examines the interplay between energy transduction and genome function in the major transitions of evolution, with implications ranging from planetary habitability to human health. We hope that these papers will contribute to a new evolutionary synthesis of energetics and genetics.

KW - REDOX

KW - LIFE

KW - energy flow

KW - MECHANISM

KW - genomes

KW - PHOSPHORYLATION

KW - EMERGENCE

KW - ORIGIN

KW - mitochondria

KW - SEXES

KW - origin of life

KW - MITOCHONDRIAL GENOMES

KW - EUKARYOTES

KW - ENERGETICS

U2 - 10.1098/rstb.2012.0253

DO - 10.1098/rstb.2012.0253

M3 - Editorial

C2 - 23754807

SN - 0962-8436

VL - 368

JO - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B - Biological Sciences

JF - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B - Biological Sciences

IS - 1622

M1 - ARTN 20120253

ER -