Coevolution of reproducers and replicators at the origin of life and the conditions for the origin of genomes.

ABSTRACT: There are two fundamentally distinct but inextricably linked types of biological evolutionary units, reproducers and replicators. Reproducers are cells and organelles that reproduce via various forms of division and maintain the physical continuity of compartments and their content. Replicators are genetic elements (GE), including genomes of cellular organisms and various autonomous elements, that both cooperate with reproducers and rely on the latter for replication. All known cells and organisms comprise a union between replicators and reproducers. We explore a model in which cells emerged via symbiosis between primordial "metabolic" reproducers (protocells) which evolved, on short time scales, via a primitive form of selection and random drift, and mutualist replicators. Mathematical mo

SUBMITTER: Babajanyan SG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10083607 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature