Abstract
Information in living systems is part of a complex relationship between the internal organization and functionality of life. In a cell, both genetic-coding sequences and molecular-shape recognition are sources of biological information. For folded polymers, its spatial arrangement contains general references about conditions that shaped them, as imprints, defining the data for spatial (conformational) information. Considering the origin of life problem, prebiotic dynamics of matching and transfer of molecular shapes may emerge as a flow of information in prebiotic assemblages. The property of carrying information in molecular conformations is only displayed at this system organization level. Accordingly, spatial information is a resource for active system responses toward milieu disturbances. Propagation of resilient conformations could be the substrate for structural maintenance through dynamical molecular scaffolding. The above is a basis for adaptive behavior in potentially biogenic systems. Starting from non-structured populations of carrying-information polymers, in the present contribution, we advance toward an entire theoretical framework considering the active role of these polymers to support the emergence of adaptive response in systems that manage conformational information flow. We discuss this scenario as a previous step for the arising of sequential information carried out by genetic polymers.
Highlights
Biological adaptation is an evolutionary response that depends on a flow of information that links the organization with functions in living systems, according to the changing environmental context
Biological adaptation works like the construction of relationships between life and surroundings (Lewontin, 1981)
We discuss spatial information’s role in the emergence of adaptive behavior as a previous step to developing functional coding sequences that lead to the emergence of life
Summary
Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City, Mexico. Information in living systems is part of a complex relationship between the internal organization and functionality of life In a cell, both genetic-coding sequences and molecular-shape recognition are sources of biological information. Starting from non-structured populations of carrying-information polymers, in the present contribution, we advance toward an entire theoretical framework considering the active role of these polymers to support the emergence of adaptive response in systems that manage conformational information flow. We discuss this scenario as a previous step for the arising of sequential information carried out by genetic polymers
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