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Determining the Egg Fertilization Rate of Bemisia tabaci Using a Cytogenetic Technique

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Published on: April 1, 2019

The basic reproductive ratio of life.

Michael L Manapat¹, Irene A Chen, Martin A Nowak

¹Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.

Journal of Theoretical Biology

|December 26, 2009

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Early life may have emerged from "prelife" where template-directed polymerization allowed specific genetic sequences to become abundant, even with inefficient replication, a phenomenon termed "subcritical life."

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Area of Science:

Origin of life studies
Prebiotic chemistry
Evolutionary biology

Background:

Template-directed polymerization is a proposed mechanism for early genetic material replication.
Prebiotic chemistry is assumed to produce activated monomers for polymerization.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how template-directed polymerization affects spontaneous polymerization (prelife).
To explore conditions under which genetic sequences can achieve high abundance in early cellular systems.

Main Methods:

Modeling prebiotic chemistry and spontaneous polymerization to define "prelife."
Analyzing the impact of template-directed polymerization on prelife equilibrium.
Introducing the concept of "subcritical life" to describe sequence abundance dynamics.

Main Results:

Template-directed polymerization alters prelife equilibrium based on rate constants.
Sequences with a basic reproductive ratio > 1 can become highly abundant.
"Subcritical life" allows long sequences, potentially ribozymes, to proliferate even with inefficient replication.

Conclusions:

Subcritical life provides a pathway for the emergence of functional genetic molecules.
Replication can be viewed as an "infection" of prelife systems.
This model offers insights into the evolution of early life and replication.