Information dynamics in living systems: prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Living systems use information and energy to maintain stable entropy while far from thermodynamic equilibrium. The underlying first principles have not been established.

Findings

We propose that stable entropy in living systems, in the absence of thermodynamic equilibrium, requires an information extremum (maximum or minimum), which is invariant to first order perturbations. Proliferation and death represent key feedback mechanisms that promote stability even in a non-equilibrium state. A system moves to low or high information depending on its energy status, as the benefit of information in maintaining and increasing order is balanced against its energy cost. Prokaryotes, which lack specialized energy-producing organelles (mitochondria), are energy-limited and co

SUBMITTER: Frieden BR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3139603 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature