On the Spectrum of Prebiotic Chemical Systems |
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Authors: | Rodrick Wallace Robert G Wallace |
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Institution: | (1) The New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA;(2) Department of Geography, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA |
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Abstract: | We reexamine Eigen’s paradox using the asymptotic limit theorems of information theory. Applying the homology between information
source uncertainty and free energy density, under rate distortion constraints, the error catastrophe emerges as the lowest
energy state for simple prebiotic systems without error correction. Invoking the usual compartmentalization – i.e., ‘vesicles’
– and using a Red Queen argument, suggests that information crosstalk between two or more properly interacting structures
can initiate a coevolutionary dynamic having at least two quasi-stable states. The first is a low energy realm near the error
threshold, and, depending on available energy, the second can approach zero error as a limit. A large deviations argument
produces jet-like global transitions which, over sufficient time, may enable shifts between the many quasi-stable modes available
to more complicated structures, ‘locking in’ to some subset of the various possible low error rate chemical systems, which
become subject to development by selection and chance extinction. Energy availability, according to the model, is thus a powerful
necessary condition for low error rate replication, suggesting that some fundamental prebiotic ecosystem transformation entrained
reproductive fidelity. This work, then, supports speculation that our RNA/DNA world may indeed be only the chance result of
a very broad prebiotic evolutionary phenomenon. Processes in vitro, or ex planeta, might have other outcomes. |
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Keywords: | Biochemical evolution Eigen’ s paradox Error catastrophe Information theory Rate distortion |
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