What is it about?

How have organisms evolved to look like they do (their form), and can do what they can do (their functions)? After the fusion of the sperm and egg at mating, a zygote, sharing the so-far hidden characters of its parents, develops from an embryo to an adult with its own unique set of characters (form and functions). To produce a particular form requires that cells, (apparently autonomous units) form patterns. As the organisms develop, these patterns change dramatically. How do the cells ‘know’ where they should be at any point in this development process? In what we call the “independent Attractor” (IA model), of the cell, we take clues from artificial life to better understand development and morphology. An artificial ecosystem, an environment with organisms, ground, rain, etc, and with grass as a nutrient for the organisms, built of autonomous particles by Mauno Rönkkö, showed life-like behaviours that were not ‘built in’ but emerged from the system dynamics based on rules, and information attached to the particles determining how strongly they attached to their neighbours. We say: “In particular, intelligent collective behaviour emerged from simple rules of engagement, indicating also the presence of implicit information transference.” We showed how these “rules of engagement” (RoE) from which the cell phenotype emerges arise using Refinement Calculus in: https://journals.plos.org › plosone › article?id=10.1371 › journal.pone.0002290. The idea that “rules”, essentially virtual entities, can cause phenotypes is unfamiliar to many, but the shoaling of fish and the murmuration of starlings are both examples of “dynamic morphology” based on local rules applying to autonomous individuals. We are saying that the RoE provide cells with the ability to construct multicellular organisms. As an analogy one might use the highway code as a rule set that makes it safe to drive a car on a busy road: that highway codes are written down does not detract from the fact that drivers are using the rules whether or not they have ever read the highway code. To a degree cells are intelligent.

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Why is it important?

Of the four primary domains of biology, inheritance, evolution, development, and morphogenesis, progress in understanding the latter two has been the slowest and least convincing. Morphology, seen as patterns of cells that change as organisms grow (develop) from the zygote to the adult, the problem of understanding what controls the necessarily selective cell growth has appeared more challenging than understanding inheritance and evolution. Consider, for example, how the two parts of a “ball and socket” joint must grow at the same rate, while necessarily being separate parts so that the joint can function throughout life. However, as it turns out (see The Gene: an Appraisal), it is an illusion that inheritance and evolution are understood. Biology is back where it was in 1900.

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This page is a summary of: The evolutionary origin of form and function, The Journal of Physiology, May 2014, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.2014.271775.
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