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SMALL STEPS TO COMPLEXITY. "The evolution of life on earth has been driven by a small number of major evolutionary transitions. These transitions have been characterized by individuals that could previously replicate independently, cooperating to form a new, more complex life form." https://lnkd.in/eia5GWQ View in LinkedIn

ANALOGOUS SYSTEMS. "With the rise of synthetic biology, evolutionary robotics, artificial life and advanced simulations, novel perspectives to these problems have led to a rather interesting scenario, where not only the major transitions can be studied or even reproduced, but even new ones might be potentially identified. In both cases, transitions can be understood in terms of phase transitions, as defined in physics." https://lnkd.in/d94S2CY View in LinkedIn

NEW THINKING. "Synthetic transitions: towards a new synthesis. We can create a new multi-cellular system by engineering new cell–cell signals on single cells. Similarly, a proto-grammar can emerge in a group of interacting, evolvable robots. These are synthetic transitions that are not necessarily related to standard evolutionary paths, but they do involve ways to generate major innovations starting from simpler systems." https://lnkd.in/d94S2CY View in LinkedIn

TRANSITION POINT. "The bifunctionality of Rubisco as both a photosynthetic enzyme and a reserve of mobilizable N is reflected in the dual role of foliage: leaves are organs of storage as well as assimilation, and the initiation of senescence may be considered to be the point of transition from C to N source." https://lnkd.in/dPac2Jv View in LinkedIn

BIOLOGICAL EMERGENCE. "The emergence of life, the genetic code, complex cells, multicellular organisms and language are some of the best-known examples. They all involve a novel class of organization with high-order properties not reducible to the properties of the lower-scale units." https://lnkd.in/d94S2CY View in LinkedIn

SINK-SOURCE CHATTER. "Senescence is responsive to communication between sources and sinks in which sugar signalling and hormonal regulation play central roles. Monocarpy and polycarpy represent contrasting outcomes of the balance between the determinacy of apical meristems and source–sink cross-talk. Even extremely long-lived perennials sustain a high degree of meristem integrity." https://lnkd.in/dPac2Jv View in LinkedIn

UPDATING DARWINISM. "The world's top biologists have met to discuss whether we should update evolution" "Bringing Darwin's theory into the 21st century." http://www.sciencealert.com/the-world-s-top-biologists-have-met-to-discuss-whether-we-should-update-evolution View in LinkedIn

SINKS TRUMP SOURCES. "A semelparous plant dies because its sink tissues kill its source organs by a kind of starvation, by induction of senescence in response to nutrient diversion or by export of a ‘death hormone'." (Semelparous organisms have only one reproductive episode before death). https://lnkd.in/dPac2Jv View in LinkedIn

CODE BIRTH. "Stereochemical match is aided by codonic or anticodonic triplets in the corresponding binding sites although an open question is the accuracy when all amino acids and aptamers are present in the same milieu. Should this mechanism turn out to be robust, it offers a convenient road toward initial establishment of the code." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/10104.full View in LinkedIn

SOURCES. "Organs that supply the precursors for sink metabolism are sources. Sources and sinks communicate through the vascular system. During development of the endosperm of cereal grains and the parenchyma of potato tubers, large amounts of starch are accumulated. These organs are supplied via the phloem with assimilated C mostly fixed by current photosynthesis." https://lnkd.in/dPac2Jv View in LinkedIn