May of Darwinian Wave: Darwinian chemistry, Darwinian biophysics and Darwinian fossil

Just in one month three papers, all of them exploring implications of Darwinian evolution in different areas. Suddenly there is a big blow of Darwinian fundamentalism and not to mention even Darwinian fundamentalist are suprised with this very latest development. Starting with very much hyped “Ida” (Darwinius masillae) which was hailed as the missing link in human evolution and broken all records of scientific sensationalism attracting criticism from all quarters- media, creationist, evolutionist and everyone else. Already much has been written about Ida and its hyper link with human evolutionary history and how missing link was totally misunderstood. Indeed, it will be totally unwise to write about same here again, you can find better and wiser commentaries on this topic somewhere else, or if you like a stupid one then follow this link. On the contrary I would like to discuss sum-up of other two articles here, first one is about Darwinian biophysics in journal PNAS where Andrew McCammon has described how evolution in the kinetics of molecular binding is influenced by electrostatically steered diffusion, which appears to be the driving force and major environmental factor behind this evolution. Competition for favorable outcomes has been also shaped by evolution at molecular level which is more often determined by diffusional dynamics than by inertial dynamics. Further he suggests that

Such selective pressures are also recorded in proteins at the next level of a hierarchy, in some of the venom molecules of snakes such as the green mamba that prey on small mammals in sub-Saharan East Africa. The green mamba toxin fasciculin-2 is a small protein whose positively charged surface is attracted to, and clamps down on, the active-site entrance of acetylcholinesterase, causing muscular activity of the unfortunate rat or other prey to cease. Here, again, the binding involves electrostatically steered diffusion, and the binding speed is increased by a factor of up to a few hundred by the electrostatic attraction between the proteins.

Second one is about Darwinian chemistry as an attempt for total de novo synthesis of a simple cell in journal Molecular BioSystems. In order to called as alive a synthetic protocellular system should demonstrate key capabilities such as growth, self-replication, heredity and evolution, and for Darwinian evolution the most fundamental of these is the capacity for self-replication. Before Darwinian replication machinery can proceed

The synthesis of a primitive cell capable of growth, reproduction and heredity is in many ways the ultimate synthetic biology project. Recent progress has removed all but a few obstacles and the inception of a simple heterotrophic man-made life-form is likely to not be far away. It will be fascinating to explore cellular evolution using these minimal systems and study their adaptation to different evolutionary challenges. Such “doppelgangers” of the ancestors of life on earth may provide many exciting insights into the transition from prebiotic to biotic matter, the origins of cellular competition and cooperation, as well as the physicochemical parameters necessary for cellular life. Such protocells will also represent a simple self-replicating nanostructure, which may prove a well-defined and controllable host for embedding synthetic biology devices.

In summary, three interesting article covering different facets of Darwinian evolution at three different levels-molecular, cell and animal. Remarkably diffusion appears to be deriving force for the evolution at all three levels.

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