The Continuity Principle and the Evolution of Replication Fidelity
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The Continuity Principle and the Evolution of Replication Fidelity Seymour Garte1 Received: 15 February 2020 / Accepted: 28 October 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Evolution in modern life requires high replication fidelity to allow for natural selection. A simulation model utilizing simulated phenotype data on cellular probability of survival was developed to determine how self-replication fidelity could evolve in early life. The results indicate that initial survivability and replication fidelity both contribute to overall fitness as measured by growth rates of the cell population. Survival probability was the more dominant feature, and evolution was possible even with zero replication fidelity. A derived formula for the relationship of survival probability and replication fidelity with growth rate was consistent with the simulated empirical data. Quantitative assessment of continuity and other evidence was obtained for a saltation (non-continuous) evolutionary process starting from low to moderate levels of survival probability and self-replication fidelity to reach the high levels seen in modern life forms. Keywords Abiogenesis · Continuity principle · Replication fidelity · Statistical model
1 Introduction The Continuity Principle (Wolpert 1994) in evolution has been described as the “…general Darwinian principle… [that] evolution must proceed via consecutive, manageable steps, each one associated with a demonstrable increase in fitness” (Wolf and Koonin 2007). While Darwin envisaged a strict requirement for very small steps, we now know that there are many exceptions to this, wherein it is possible for a major evolutionary change to occur that leads to a relatively sudden and dramatic increase (or jump—“saltation”) in fitness (Eldredge and Gould 1972; Koonin 2007; Fontana and Schuster 1998; Raggi et al. 2016). Examples * Seymour Garte [email protected] 1
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers University, 160 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854‑8020, USA
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of saltation in evolution include the endosymbiosis event leading to the origin of eukaryotes (Margulis 1996; Martin et al. 2015), the whole genome duplications at the origin of the vertebrates (Dehal and Boore 2005; Coate and Doyle 2011), and the major radiation of the Cambrian explosion (Morris 1989; Lee et al. 2013). Mechanisms for these rare violations of the continuity principle are now part of standard evolutionary biological theory (Minelli et al. 2009; Theissen 2009; Laland et al. 2015). Continuity is a major issue in the origin of life (Gabora 2006). Starting with chemical evolution, there are many steps in the process to reaching a living cell that have yet to be elucidated, with unknown mechanisms and unknown degrees of continuity. One of the most important of these to biologists is the origin of evolution, which allows for the transition from chemical to biological complexity (Raggi et al. 2016). Evolution is not synonymous with life in its
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