How functional differentiation originated in prebiotic evolution
Abstract
Even the simplest cell exhibits a high degree of functional differentiation
(FD) realized through several mechanisms and devices contributing
differently to its maintenance. Searching for the origin of FD, we briefly argue
that the emergence of the respective organizational complexity cannot be the
result of either natural selection (NS) or solely of the dynamics of simple
self-maintaining (SM) systems. Accordingly, a highly gradual and cumulative
process should have been necessary for the transition from either simple
self-assembled or self-maintaining systems of functionless structural components
to systems with FD. We follow results of recent in vitro experiments with
respect to competition among protocells, where a primitive type of selection
begins to operate among them accompanied by a parallel evolution of their
functional domain. We argue that minimal forms of FD should be established
within the evolution of SM processes in protocells as they undergo a simpler
selection process for stability and persistence in a prebiotic environment. We
then suggest the concept of closure of constraints (CoC) as a way to identify and
describe minimal FD in a far-from-equilibrium SM organization. We show in
detail how the concept of CoC together with the conditions for its fulfillment
can be applied in the case of a simple protocellular system that begins to couple
internal chemical reactions with the formation of its membrane components.
Finally, we discuss how such SM systems can evolve towards significantly
higher levels of FD, suggesting this is mainly the result of functional recombination
(formation of mechanisms) in the context of a modular SM organization.