Stress, genomic adaptation, and the evolutionary trade-off

Cells are constantly exposed to various internal and external stresses. The importance of cellular stress and its implication to disease conditions have become popular research topics. Many ongoing investigations focus on the sources of stress, their specific molecular mechanisms and interactions, especially regarding their contributions to many common and complex diseases through defined molecular pathways. Numerous molecular mechanisms have been linked to endoplasmic reticulum stress along with many unexpected findings, drastically increasing the complexity of our molecular understanding and challenging how to apply individual mechanism-based knowledge in the clinic. A newly emergent genome theory searches for the synthesis of a general evolutionary mechanism that unifies different types of stress and functional relationships from a genome-defined system point of view. Herein, we discuss the evolutionary relationship between stress and somatic cell adaptation under physiological, pathological, and somatic cell survival conditions, the multiple meanings to achieve adaptation and its potential trade-off. In particular, we purposely defocus from specific stresses and mechanisms by redirecting attention toward studying underlying general mechanisms.