Inevitable evolution: back toThe Originand beyond the 20th Century paradigm of contingent evolution by historical natural selection

Peto's "Paradox" and Six Degrees of Cancer Prevalence

Peto's paradox and the epidemiologic observation of the average six degrees of tumor prevalence are studied and hypothetically solved. A simple consideration, Petho's paradox challenges our intuitive understanding of cancer risk and prevalence. Our simple consideration is that the more a cell divides, the higher the chance of acquiring cancerous mutations, and so the larger or longer-lived organisms have more cells and undergo more cell divisions over their lifetime, expecting to have a higher risk of developing cancer. Paradoxically, it is not supported by the observations. The allometric scaling of species could answer the Peto paradox. Another paradoxical human epidemiology observation in six average mutations is necessary for cancer prevalence, despite the random expectations of the tumor causes. To solve this challenge, game theory could be applied. The inherited and random DNA mutations in the replication process nonlinearly drive cancer development. The statistical variance concept does not reasonably describe tumor development. Instead, the Darwinian natural selection principle is applied. The mutations in the healthy organism's cellular population can serve the species' evolutionary adaptation by the selective pressure of the circumstances. Still, some cells collect multiple uncorrected mutations, adapt to the extreme stress in the stromal environment, and develop subclinical phases of cancer in the individual. This process needs extensive subsequent DNA replications to heritage and collect additional mutations, which are only marginal alone. Still, together, they are preparing for the first stage of the precancerous condition. In the second stage, when one of the caretaker genes is accidentally mutated, the caused genetic instability prepares the cell to fight for its survival and avoid apoptosis. This can be described as a competitive game. In the third stage, the precancerous cell develops uncontrolled proliferation with the damaged gatekeeper gene and forces the new game strategy with binary cooperation with stromal cells for alimentation. In the fourth stage, the starving conditions cause a game change again, starting a cooperative game, where the malignant cells cooperate and force the cooperation of the stromal host, too. In the fifth stage, the resetting of homeostasis finishes the subclinical stage, and in the fifth stage, the clinical phase starts. The prevention of the development of mutated cells is more complex than averting exposure to mutagens from the environment throughout the organism's lifetime. Mutagenic exposure can increase the otherwise random imperfect DNA reproduction, increasing the likelihood of cancer development, but mutations exist. Toxic exposure is more challenging; it may select the tolerant cells on this particular toxic stress, so these mutations have more facility to avoid apoptosis in otherwise collected random mutational states.

Ervin Bauer's concept of biological thermodynamics and its different evaluations

The development of biological concepts in the 19th century was followed by the emergence of approaches to formulate the principles of theoretical biology. Ervin Bauer in 1920, and in more detail in 1935, suggested the basic principle that can be accepted as the fundamental law of biology: "The living systems are never in equilibrium; at the expense of their free energy they constantly perform work to avoid the equilibrium required by the laws of physics and chemistry under existing external conditions." Many researchers interpreted biology with the help of physical quantities but Bauer was the first to build a general and already molecular-based biological theory. The main point of Bauer's concept is not the non-equilibrium, but the function of organism producing the non-equilibrium, the capacity for self-adaptation, and the power for changing its functions in such a way that the system gets the state of non-equilibrium always anew. We will discuss Bauer's theorem, the contemporaneous objections, and the divergent opinions about his work by succeeding generations of scientists.

The natural selection of metabolism and mass selects lifeforms from viruses to multicellular animals

I show that the natural selection of metabolism and mass can select for the major life‐history and allometric transitions that define lifeforms from viruses, over prokaryotes and larger unicells, to multicellular animals. The proposed selection is driven by a mass‐specific metabolism that is selected as the pace of the resource handling that generates net energy for self‐replication. An initial selection of mass is given by a dependence of mass‐specific metabolism on mass in replicators that are close to a lower size limit. A sublinear maximum dependence selects for virus‐like replicators, with no intrinsic metabolism, no cell, and practically no mass. A superlinear dependence selects for prokaryote‐like self‐replicating cells, with asexual reproduction and incomplete metabolic pathways. These self‐replicators have selection for increased net energy, and this generates a gradual unfolding of population‐dynamic feed‐back selection from interactive competition. The incomplete feed‐back selects for larger unicells with more developed metabolic pathways, and the completely developed feed‐back for multicellular animals with sexual reproduction. This model unifies the natural selection of lifeforms from viruses to multicellular animals, and it provides a parsimonious explanation where allometries and major life histories evolve from the natural selection of metabolism and mass.

Quantum information and the problem of mechanisms of biological evolution

One of the most important conditions for replication in early evolution is the de facto elimination of the conformational degrees of freedom of the replicators, the mechanisms of which remain unclear. In addition, realistic evolutionary timescales can be established based only on partially directed evolution, further complicating this issue. A division of the various evolutionary theories into two classes has been proposed based on the presence or absence of a priori information about the evolving system. A priori information plays a key role in solving problems in evolution. Here, a model of partially directed evolution, based on the learning automata theory, which includes a priori information about the fitness space, is proposed. A potential repository of such prior information is the states of biologically important molecules. Thus, the need for extended evolutionary synthesis is discussed. Experiments to test the hypothesis of partially directed evolution are proposed.