Abstract
One of the central issues of the whole process of biogenesis is how to understand the progressive constitution of a large (in spatial and temporal terms) system that transcends the individual sphere of proto-metabolic organizations and includes collective networks, both synchronous (i.e., proto-ecosystem webs) and asynchronous (i.e., trans-generational protocell populations). This paper analyzes the appearance of a minimal form of reproduction in the process of biogenesis from an organizational perspective. This perspective highlights the problem of how a process transcending the actual organization of the reproducing entities (i.e., protocells) could have a causal power. It is proposed that this problem may be explained if we consider that reproduction generates a kind of feedback between the actual concatenation of the processes of each reproducing cycle and the type continuity that a reliable iteration of these cycles creates. Thus, reproduction generates a new form of self-maintaining system linking “organismal” and “evolutionary” domains, since the consequence of the iteration of self-reproducing cycles is the long-term continuity of a specific type of SM compartmentalized organization, and the functional role of a particular self-reproducing organization (token) lies in its capacity to trigger a diachronic succession of similar self-reproducing organizations, i.e., a lineage.
Highlights
Physiology is usually understood as the study of the organization of a living system, or in other words, the study of its mechanisms and functions
As we shall argue, looking at this issue from the perspective of its origins makes it easier to understand the connection between the “physiological” and the “evolutionary” dimensions of the phenomenon of life. This is because one of the first things to consider when we address the question of the origin of biological organization is the fact that the appearance
We have tried to show that understanding the origin of life requires the explanation of the early appearance of a new form of circular causality in the process of biogenesis, articulated at different spatial and temporal scales
Summary
Physiology is usually understood as the study of the (current) organization of a living system, or in other words, the study of its mechanisms and functions. The individual fates of the reproduced and the reproducer, considered as tokens, are different (both will be functionally similar) All these considerations lead us to the following conclusion: in a prebiotic, pre-genetic context, a self-reproducing organization is a specific form of a compartmentalized SM organization, characterized (among other features, like the presence of certain constraints able to control the temporal and spatial distribution of molecules) by the fact that it triggers an indefinite production of similar (yet spatially separate) organizations. A solution to this problem may be to consider that historical (i.e., trans-generational) causal continuity does not (only) rely on the continuity of the actual organization of the reproducing cycles (which, as we have seen, are interrupted every time a new individual is born) Rather, it exists, fundamentally, because the reproducing cycles ensure a sufficient degree of similarity between the reproduced and the reproducer, such that an indefinite set of iterations of the cycle can be ensured, maintaining the specific form of organization that reproduces itself and is reproduced. A synchronic disadvantage will usually lead to a diachronic disadvantage
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