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Fonio E, Feinerman O. High mirror symmetry in mouse exploratory behavior. Front Behav Neurosci 2024; 18:1381852. [PMID: 38741684 PMCID: PMC11089150 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1381852] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2024] [Accepted: 04/08/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
The physicality of the world in which the animal acts-its anatomical structure, physiology, perception, emotional states, and cognitive capabilities-determines the boundaries of the behavioral space within which the animal can operate. Behavior, therefore, can be considered as the subspace that remains after secluding all actions that are not available to the animal due to constraints. The very signature of being a certain creature is reflected in these limitations that shape its behavior. A major goal of ethology is to expose those constraints that carve the intricate structure of animal behavior and reveal both uniqueness and commonalities between animals within and across taxa. Exploratory behavior in an empty arena seems to be stochastic; nevertheless, it does not mean that the moving animal is a random walker. In this study, we present how, by adding constraints to the animal's locomotion, one can gradually retain the 'mousiness' that characterizes the behaving mouse. We then introduce a novel phenomenon of high mirror symmetry along the locomotion of mice, which highlights another constraint that further compresses the complex nature of exploratory behavior in these animals. We link these findings to a known neural mechanism that could explain this phenomenon. Finally, we suggest our novel finding and derived methods to be used in the search for commonalities in the motion trajectories of various organisms across taxa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ehud Fonio
- Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
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Gentili PL, Stano P. Monitoring the advancements in the technology of artificial cells by determining their complexity degree: Hints from complex systems descriptors. Front Bioeng Biotechnol 2023; 11:1132546. [PMID: 36815888 PMCID: PMC9928734 DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1132546] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2022] [Accepted: 01/18/2023] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Pier Luigi Gentili
- Dipartimento di Chimica, Biologia e Biotecnologie, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy,*Correspondence: Pier Luigi Gentili, ; Pasquale Stano,
| | - Pasquale Stano
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies (DiSTeBA), University of Salento, Ecotekne, Lecce, Italy,*Correspondence: Pier Luigi Gentili, ; Pasquale Stano,
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Mayer C. Spontaneous Formation of Functional Structures in Messy Environments. Life (Basel) 2022; 12:720. [PMID: 35629387 PMCID: PMC9148140 DOI: 10.3390/life12050720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2022] [Revised: 05/09/2022] [Accepted: 05/10/2022] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Even though prebiotic chemistry initially deals with simple molecules, its composition rapidly gains complexity with oligomerization. Starting with, e.g., 20 monomers (such as the 20 proteinogenic amino acids), we expect 400 different dimers, 3,200,000 pentamers, or more than 1013 decamers. Hence, the starting conditions are very messy but also form a very powerful pool of potentially functional oligomers. A selecting structure (a "selector" such as membrane multilayers or vesicles) may pick and accumulate those molecules from the pool that fulfill a simple function (such as the suitability to integrate into a bilayer membrane). If this "selector" is, in turn, subject to a superimposed selection in a periodic process, the accumulated oligomers may be further trimmed to fulfill more complex functions, which improve the survival rate of the selectors. Successful oligomers will be passed from generation to generation and further improved in subsequent steps. After thousands of generations, the selector, together with its integrated oligomers, can form a functional unit of considerable order and complexity. The actual power of this process of random formation and selection has already been shown in laboratory experiments. In this concept paper, earlier results are summarized and brought into a new context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Mayer
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, CENIDE, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45141 Essen, Germany
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Paredes O, Morales JA, Mendizabal AP, Romo-Vázquez R. Metacode: One code to rule them all. Biosystems 2021; 208:104486. [PMID: 34274462 DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2021.104486] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2021] [Revised: 07/07/2021] [Accepted: 07/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
The code of codes or metacode is a microcosm where biological layers, as well as their codes, interact together allowing the continuity of information flow in organisms by increasing biological entities' complexity. Through this novel organic code, biological systems scale towards niches with higher informatic freedom building structures that increase the entropy in the universe. Code biology has developed a novel informational framework where biological entities strive themselves through the information flow carried out through organic codes consisting of two molecular or functional landscapes intertwined through arbitrary linkages via an adaptor whose nature is autonomous from molecular determinism. Here we will integrate genomic and epigenomic codes according to the evidence released in ENCODE (phase 3), psychENCODE and GTEx project, outlining the principles of the metacode, to address the continuous nature of biological systems and their inter-layered information flow. This novel complex metacode maps from very constrained sets of elements (i.e., regulation sites modulating gene expression) to new ones with greater freedom of decoding (i.e., a continuous cell phenotypic space). This leads to a new domain in code biology where biological systems are informatic attractors that navigate an energy metaspace through a complexity-noise balance, stalling in emergent niches where organic codes take meaning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Omar Paredes
- Computer Sciences Department, CUCEI, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico
| | | | - Adriana P Mendizabal
- Molecular Biology Laboratory, Farmacobiology Department, CUCEI, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico
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Chirumbolo S, Vella A. Molecules, Information and the Origin of Life: What Is Next? Molecules 2021; 26:molecules26041003. [PMID: 33672848 PMCID: PMC7917628 DOI: 10.3390/molecules26041003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2021] [Revised: 02/09/2021] [Accepted: 02/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
How life did originate and what is life, in its deepest foundation? The texture of life is known to be held by molecules and their chemical-physical laws, yet a thorough elucidation of the aforementioned questions still stands as a puzzling challenge for science. Focusing solely on molecules and their laws has indirectly consolidated, in the scientific knowledge, a mechanistic (reductionist) perspective of biology and medicine. This occurred throughout the long historical path of experimental science, affecting subsequently the onset of the many theses and speculations about the origin of life and its maintenance. Actually, defining what is life, asks for a novel epistemology, a ground on which living systems’ organization, whose origin is still questioned via chemistry, physics and even philosophy, may provide a new key to focus onto the complex nature of the human being. In this scenario, many issues, such as the role of information and water structure, have been long time neglected from the theoretical basis on the origin of life and marginalized as a kind of scenic backstage. On the contrary, applied science and technology went ahead on considering molecules as the sole leading components in the scenery. Water physics and information dynamics may have a role in living systems much more fundamental than ever expected. Can an organism be simply explained by a mechanistic view of its nature or we need “something else”? Probably, we can earn sound foundations about life by simply changing our prejudicial view about living systems simply as complex, highly ordered machines. In this manuscript we would like to reappraise many fundamental aspects of molecular and chemical biology and reading them through a new paradigm, which includes Prigogine’s dissipative structures and informational dissipation (Shannon dissipation). This would provide readers with insightful clues about how biology and chemistry may be thoroughly revised, referring to new models, such as informational dissipation. We trust they are enabled to address a straightforward contribution in elucidating what life is for science. This overview is not simply a philosophical speculation, but it would like to affect deeply our way to conceive and describe the foundations of organisms’ life, providing intriguing suggestions for readers in the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Salvatore Chirumbolo
- Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +39-0458027645
| | - Antonio Vella
- Verona-Unit of Immunology, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata, 37134 Verona, Italy;
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Singh SV, Vishakantaiah J, Meka JK, Sivaprahasam V, Chandrasekaran V, Thombre R, Thiruvenkatam V, Mallya A, Rajasekhar BN, Muruganantham M, Datey A, Hill H, Bhardwaj A, Jagadeesh G, Reddy KPJ, Mason NJ, Sivaraman B. Shock Processing of Amino Acids Leading to Complex Structures-Implications to the Origin of Life. Molecules 2020; 25:molecules25235634. [PMID: 33265981 PMCID: PMC7730583 DOI: 10.3390/molecules25235634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2020] [Revised: 11/15/2020] [Accepted: 11/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The building blocks of life, amino acids, are believed to have been synthesized in the extreme conditions that prevail in space, starting from simple molecules containing hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. However, the fate and role of amino acids when they are subjected to similar processes largely remain unexplored. Here we report, for the first time, that shock processed amino acids tend to form complex agglomerate structures. Such structures are formed on timescales of about 2 ms due to impact induced shock heating and subsequent cooling. This discovery suggests that the building blocks of life could have self-assembled not just on Earth but on other planetary bodies as a result of impact events. Our study also provides further experimental evidence for the ‘threads’ observed in meteorites being due to assemblages of (bio)molecules arising from impact-induced shocks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Surendra V. Singh
- Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380009, India; (S.V.S.); (J.K.M.)
- Discipline of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar 382355, India
| | - Jayaram Vishakantaiah
- Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India;
| | - Jaya K. Meka
- Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380009, India; (S.V.S.); (J.K.M.)
| | - Vijayan Sivaprahasam
- Planetary Science Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380009, India; (V.S.); (A.B.)
| | | | - Rebecca Thombre
- Department of Biotechnology, Modern College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Pune 411005, India;
| | - Vijay Thiruvenkatam
- Discipline of Biological Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar 382355, India;
| | - Ambresh Mallya
- Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India;
| | | | | | - Akshay Datey
- Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India; (A.D.); (G.J.); (K.P.J.R.)
| | - Hugh Hill
- Physical Sciences, International Space University, 67400 Illkirch-Graffenstaden, France;
| | - Anil Bhardwaj
- Planetary Science Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380009, India; (V.S.); (A.B.)
| | - Gopalan Jagadeesh
- Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India; (A.D.); (G.J.); (K.P.J.R.)
| | - Kalidevapura P. J. Reddy
- Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India; (A.D.); (G.J.); (K.P.J.R.)
| | - Nigel J. Mason
- School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NZ, UK
- Correspondence: (N.J.M.); (B.S.)
| | - Bhalamurugan Sivaraman
- Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380009, India; (S.V.S.); (J.K.M.)
- Correspondence: (N.J.M.); (B.S.)
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