Evolutionary modes of modern cells versus protocells (IMAGE)
Caption
(A) In modern lifeforms, cellular traits and functions are controlled by genetic information encoded in DNA sequences. Mutations generate sequence diversity, and when this diversity leads to differences in fitness, natural selection enriches variants with higher fitness in the next generation. (B) At the earliest stage of life, the “evolution” of primordial cells was likely far simpler. Diversity in molecular composition would have directly shaped protocell behavior through their physicochemical properties, allowing molecules with advantageous traits to be preferentially retained. Such composition-driven selection may have formed a primitive basis for evolutionary change.
Credit
Tatsuya Shinoda & Natsumi Noda, ELSI
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