Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Spatial dynamics and the evolution of enzyme production.

Alexandre Rosas1, José F Fontanari

  • 1Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, Caixa Postal 369, São Carlos SP, Brazil.

Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere : the Journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life
|November 8, 2003
PubMed
Summary

A small group of enzyme-producing replicators can outcompete simpler ones, challenging traditional models. This evolutionary process, involving protein synthesis, resembles nonequilibrium phase transitions and isn

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Nonequilibrium phase transition and cultural drift in the continuous-trait Axelrod model.

Physical review. E·2026
Same author

On testing the tolerance-plasticity trade-off hypothesis as the change of thermal tolerance across two environments.

Journal of thermal biology·2025
Same author

PLRev at 20: Honoring Leonid Perlovsky and celebrating interdisciplinary science.

Physics of life reviews·2024
Same author

Cooperation in the face of crisis: effect of demographic noise in collective-risk social dilemmas.

Mathematical biosciences and engineering : MBE·2024
Same author

Revisiting institutional punishment in the N-person prisoner's dilemma.

Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften·2024
Same author

Evolutionary Game-Theoretic Approach to the Population Dynamics of Early Replicators.

Life (Basel, Switzerland)·2024

Area of Science:

  • Origin of Life Research
  • Theoretical Biology
  • Chemical Evolution

Background:

  • Classical chemical kinetics and mean-field theories offer limited insights into early replicator evolution.
  • Understanding the transition from simple template replication to more complex protein-mediated (enzymatic) systems is crucial.
  • The evolutionary stability of enzymatic replicators requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To model the evolution of protein synthesis and enzyme production in replicator systems.
  • To investigate the invasion dynamics of mutant replicators within a population.
  • To explore the applicability of nonequilibrium phase transition concepts to evolutionary thresholds.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a stochastic cellular automaton model on a two-dimensional square lattice.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Simulated interactions between direct-template replicators and protein-mediated (enzymatic) replicators.
  • Analyzed invasion probabilities and the impact of mutant efficiency advantages.

    • Main Results:

    • A small colony of enzymatic replicators can successfully invade and take over a population of simpler replicators.
    • The invasion threshold exhibits characteristics of a nonequilibrium phase transition.
    • Slightly more efficient enzymatic mutants struggle to invade, but significantly more productive mutants can establish.

    Conclusions:

    • Stochastic models reveal that enzymatic replicators have a higher probability of establishing than mean-field predictions suggest.
    • The evolution of enzymatic replication is not a singular, irreversible event but depends on the magnitude of advantage.
    • This work provides a framework for understanding evolutionary transitions using concepts from statistical physics.