New approaches to the problem of generating coherent, reproducible phenotypes

Fundamental, unresolved questions in biology include how a bacterium generates coherent phenotypes, how a population of bacteria generates a coherent set of such phenotypes, how the cell cycle is regulated and how life arose. To try to help answer these questions, we have developed the concepts of hyperstructures, competitive coherence and life on the scales of equilibria. Hyperstructures are large assemblies of macromolecules that perform functions. Competitive coherence describes the way in which organisations such as cells select a subset of their constituents to be active in determining their behaviour; this selection results from a competition between a process that is responsible for a historical coherence and another process responsible for coherence with the current environment. Life on the scales of equilibria describes how bacteria depend on the cell cycle to negotiate phenotype space and, in particular, to satisfy the conflicting constraints of having to grow in favourable conditions so as to reproduce yet not grow in hostile conditions so as to survive. Both competitive coherence and life on the scales deal with the problem of reconciling conflicting constraints. Here, we bring together these concepts in the common framework of hyperstructures and make predictions that may be tested using a learning program, Coco, and secondary ion mass spectrometry.