Evolutionary scaling of maximum growth rate with organism size

ABSTRACT: Data from nearly 1000 species reveal the upper bound to rates of biomass production achievable by natural selection across the Tree of Life. For heterotrophs, maximum growth rates scale positively with organism size in bacteria but negatively in eukaryotes, whereas for phototrophs, the scaling is negligible for cyanobacteria and weakly negative for eukaryotes. These results have significant implications for understanding the bioenergetic consequences of the transition from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, and of the expansion of some groups of the latter into multicellularity.

SUBMITTER: Lynch M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9803686 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature