Year: 2022

RECURRING TOPOLOGIES. "We find that optimal pathways in our idealized chemistry display a logarithmic dependence of pathway length on input/output molecule size. They also display recurring topologies, including autocatalytic cycles reminiscent of ancient and highly conserved cores of real biochemistry. Finally, across all optimal pathways, we identify universally important metabolites and reactions, as well as a characteristic distribution of reaction utilization." https://lnkd.in/dUHqnYU View in LinkedIn

DEEPLY ORGANIZED. "Despite the simplicity of the model employed, we find that the ensuing pathways display a surprisingly rich set of properties, including the existence of autocatalytic cycles and hierarchical modules, the appearance of universally preferable metabolites and reactions, and a logarithmic trend of pathway length as a function of input/output molecule size." https://lnkd.in/dUHqnYU View in LinkedIn

ADAPTED PATHWAYS. "Baldwin and Krebs suggested that biochemical network topologies may reflect the adaptation toward optimally efficient metabolic strategies, and that manifold use of certain molecules may be a crucial element of this adaptation, as “it is indeed a general principle of evolution that multiple use is made of given resources." https://lnkd.in/dUHqnYU View in LinkedIn

OPTIMIZED PATHWAYS. "Some computational studies have proposed that the topology of specific metabolic pathways may have evolved towards maximal efficiency, minimal number of steps, or that network properties may reflect optimal organization." https://lnkd.in/dUHqnYU View in LinkedIn

ISSUE OF SCALE. "It is possible that hallmarks of metabolic optimality in metabolic network wiring may be observable at the level of global (multi-species) metabolic networks more than at the individual species level." https://lnkd.in/dUHqnYU View in LinkedIn

MODULAR ARCHITECTURE. "In addition to the recurrence of these topological categories among MBPs, we find that some specific structures are used repeatedly, often in a modular fashion. Specifically, many simple MBPs are used hierarchically as a toolkit for the construction of progressively more complex MBPs (data not shown), similar to what has been observed in real metabolic networks." https://lnkd.in/dUHqnYU View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this peek at the evolution of metabolic pathways, with evidence both for chaotic assembly and elegant modularity. Biochemistry and genetics are the fundamental templates that nature acts upon, and should be immensely revealing about questions of evolutionary design or happenstance, but so typically of nature, the answers are mixed, with evidence on both sides. View in LinkedIn

SELF-MODIFYING CODE. "The term is usually only applied to code where the self-modification is intentional, not in situations where code accidentally modifies itself due to an error such as a buffer overflow." https://lnkd.in/dhsfBc5 View in LinkedIn

BUFFER OVERFLOW. "In computer security and programming, a buffer overflow, or buffer overrun, is an anomaly where a program, while writing data to a buffer, overruns the buffer's boundary and overwrites adjacent memory locations. This is a special case of the violation of memory safety." https://lnkd.in/dvGXWzj View in LinkedIn

WEAK POINT. "Buffer overflows can be triggered by inputs that are designed to execute code, or alter the way the program operates. This may result in erratic program behavior, including memory access errors, incorrect results, a crash, or a breach of system security. Thus, they are the basis of many software vulnerabilities and can be maliciously exploited." https://lnkd.in/dvGXWzj View in LinkedIn