Are There Laws of Genome Evolution?
Eugene V. Koonin
National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
Abstract
Research in quantitative evolutionary genomics and systems biology led to the discovery of several universal regularities connecting genomic and molecular phenomic variables. These universals include the log-normal distribution of the evolutionary rates of orthologous genes; the power law–like distributions of paralogous family size and node degree in various biological networks; the negative correlation between a gene's sequence evolution rate and expression level; and differential scaling of functional classes of genes with genome size. The universals of genome evolution can be accounted for by simple mathematical models similar to those used in statistical physics, such as the birth-death-innovation model. These models do not explicitly incorporate selection; therefore, the observed universal regularities do not appear to be shaped by selection but rather are emergent properties of gene ensembles. Although a complete physical theory of evolutionary biology is inconceivable, the universals of genome evolution might qualify as “laws of evolutionary genomics” in the same sense “law” is understood in modern physics.
Citation: Koonin EV (2011) Are There Laws of Genome Evolution? PLoS Comput Biol 7(8): e1002173. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002173
Editor: Philip E. Bourne, University of California San Diego, United States of America
Published: August 25, 2011
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
Funding: The author's research is supported by intramural funds of the US Department of Health and Human Services (to National Library of Medicine, NIH). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist.
* E-mail: koonin@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
+++++
FREE PDF GRATIS
+++++
+++++
PERGUNTA CAUSTICANTE DESTE BLOGGER:
Será que a Biologia evolucionária vai alcançar finalmente o status de ciência dura (isto é, uma ciência que tem leis) assim como a Física? Duvido!!! Razão? A biologia só tem um princípio - o da seleção natural que está heuristicamente esvaziado que dá dó - que dó, que dó, que dó... Lembrei, tem sim uma lei, a lei de Dollo, mas ela afirma que ocorrendo a evolução, ela é irreversível. Nada fala como se deu a história evolucionária das formas biológicas em sua diversidade e complexidade.
