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Real-time Electrophysiology: Using Closed-loop Protocols to Probe Neuronal Dynamics and Beyond
Published on: June 24, 2015
Structural and regulatory evolution of cellular electrophysiological systems
Barbara Rosati1, David McKinnon
1Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Institute of Molecular Cardiology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
Evolution & Development
|September 17, 2009
Summary
Cellular electrophysiological and developmental systems evolve through regulatory evolution. This is because both systems are computational and face pleiotropy challenges, favoring regulatory over structural changes.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Biology
- Computational Biology
- Systems Biology
Background:
- Cellular electrophysiological systems and developmental systems exhibit a primary mode of evolution.
- Regulatory evolution appears to be the dominant mechanism for these systems.
- Two key shared features drive this reliance on regulatory evolution.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the evolutionary mechanisms of cellular electrophysiological systems.
- To identify shared characteristics between electrophysiological and developmental systems that influence their evolutionary trajectory.
- To determine the factors influencing the balance between regulatory and structural evolution.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of evolutionary patterns in electrophysiological and developmental systems.
- Identification of system properties contributing to evolutionary strategies.
- Assessment of the interplay between physical and computational tasks in biological systems.
Main Results:
- Both electrophysiological and developmental systems are predominantly computational.
- Structural evolution in these systems can lead to significant pleiotropy (multiple effects of a single gene).
- The balance of physical versus computational tasks, and their potential for change, dictates the mix of regulatory and structural evolution.
Conclusions:
- Regulatory evolution is favored in systems with significant computational components and potential for environmental interaction.
- Physiological systems interacting with the environment require protein function evolution for physical tasks.
- Complex physiological systems rely heavily on computational control, making regulatory evolution sufficient for adaptation.
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