Biological Evolution and Statistical Physics

ISBN-13: 9783540431886 / Angielski / Twarda / 2002 / 342 str.

M. Lassig; A. Valleriani; M. Ldssig

Opis

People have always asked what distinguishes the living from the inanimate world and what uni?es the two. The ?elds of biology and physics have a long history of exchange. Milestones at the molecular level were the discoveries of the structure ofDNA, RNA, andproteins. It is not by coincidence that this exchange has intensi?ed in recent years. Laboratory experiments reach down to the level of single molecules. Moreover, thereisnowavastamountofgenomicinformation, whichisstillgrowingex- nentially due to the various sequencing projects. Biologists increasingly feel the need for theoretical models to interpret these data in a quantitative way. At the sametime, theoreticalphysicshasmadesigni?cantprogressinareaslikelyto be relevant for the understanding of biological systems. Some important ex- plesarecooperativephenomena, statisticsfarfromthermodynamicequilibrium, systemswithquencheddisorder, andsoftmatter. Some forms of biological matter have indeed become established areas of - searchwithinphysics, suchasbiomembranes, heteropolymers, molecularmotors, microtubules, neuralsystemsetc.Thisvolumeisfocusedonadi?erentaspect of the living world that can be calledbiologicalinformation, itscoding, rep- duction, andevolution.Biologicalinformationistranslatedintostructuresand patternsoveranenormousrangeofscales, fromsinglebiomoleculestospecies networks coupled over entire continents. Thestatisticaltheory of biological information lives not only in three-dim- sional space. It involves various abstract spaces in which this information is encodedandevolves, suchasnucleotidesequences, genenetworks, ortopologies of the 'tree of life'. The articles collected highlight a few directions of research that may become important parts of this emerging ?eld. The ?rst part of the book, MolecularInformationandEvolution, startswith twoarticlesonsequencesimilarityanalysis, acentralthemeinbioinformatics which has surprisingly deep connections to statistical physics. The genetic code, RNA, andproteinsarethreeexamplesoftheintricateinterplayofsequence, structure, andfunctioninevolution.

Spis treści

Molecular information and evolution.- Statistical significance and extremal ensemble of gapped local hybrid alignment.- On the design of optimization criteria for multiple sequence alignment.- Red queen dynamics and the evolution of translational redundancy and degeneracy.- A testable genotype-phenotype map: modeling evolution of RNA molecules.- Evolutionary perspectives on protein structure, stability, and functionality.- Phylogeny.- The statistical approach to molecular phylogeny: Evidence for a nonhyperthermophilic common ancestor.- Principles of cophylogenetic maps.- Accounting for phylogenetic uncertainty in comparative studies of evolution and adaptation.- The‘ shape’ of phylogenies under simple random speciation models.- The evolution of populations and species.- Fitness landscapes.- Tempo and mode in quasispecies evolution.- Multilevel processes in evolution and development: Computational models and biological insights.- Evolutionary strategies for solving optimization problems.- Review of biological ageing on the computer.- Spatio-temporal modes of speciation.- Large-scale evolution.- Food web structure and the evolution of ecological communities.- Dynamics and topology of species networks.- Modelling macroevolutionary patterns: An ecological perspective.

Blurb

This set of lecture notes gives a first coherent account of a novel aspect of the living world that can be called biological information. The book presents both a pedagogical and state-of-the art roadmap of this rapidly evolving area and covers the whole field, from information which is encoded in the molecular genetic code to the description of large-scale evolution of complex species networks. The book will prove useful for all those who work at the interface of biology, physics and information science.