Department of Microbiology, Ramón y Cajal University Hospital, Division of Biology and Evolution of Microorganisms, Ramón y Cajal Institute for Health Research (IRYCIS), Consorcio de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública, de Colmenar km 9,100, 28034 Madrid, Spain.
FEMS Microbiol Rev. 2017 Nov 1;41(6):816-827. doi: 10.1093/femsre/fux042.
Transmission is a basic process in biology and evolution, as it communicates different biological entities within and across hierarchical levels (from genes to holobionts) both in time and space. Vertical descent, replication, is transmission of information across generations (in the time dimension), and horizontal descent is transmission of information across compartments (in the space dimension). Transmission is essentially a communication process that can be studied by analogy of the classic information theory, based on 'emitters', 'messages' and 'receivers'. The analogy can be easily extended to the triad 'emigration', 'migration' and 'immigration'. A number of causes (forces) determine the emission, and another set of causes (energies) assures the reception. The message in fact is essentially constituted by 'meaningful' biological entities. A DNA sequence, a cell and a population have a semiotic dimension, are 'signs' that are eventually recognized (decoded) and integrated by receiver biological entities. In cis-acting or unenclosed transmission, the emitters and receivers correspond to separated entities of the same hierarchical level; in trans-acting or embedded transmission, the information flows between different, but frequently nested, hierarchical levels. The result (as in introgressive events) is constantly producing innovation and feeding natural selection, influencing also the evolution of transmission processes. This review is based on the concepts presented at the André Lwoff Award Lecture in the FEMS Microbiology Congress in Maastricht in 2015.
传播是生物学和进化中的一个基本过程，它在时间和空间上在不同的层次（从基因到整体生物）内和跨层次传递不同的生物实体。垂直传递，即复制，是跨代传递信息（在时间维度上），而水平传递是跨隔室传递信息（在空间维度上）。传播本质上是一种可以通过类比经典信息论来研究的通信过程，基于“发射器”、“信息”和“接收器”。这种类比可以很容易地扩展到“移民”、“迁移”和“入境”的三联体。许多原因（力）决定了发射，而另一组原因（能量）确保了接收。事实上，信息主要由“有意义”的生物实体构成。DNA 序列、细胞和种群具有符号学维度，是最终被接收生物实体识别（解码）和整合的“符号”。在顺式作用或非封闭传播中，发射器和接收器对应于同一层次的分离实体；在反式作用或嵌入式传播中，信息在不同但经常嵌套的层次之间流动。其结果（如渐渗事件）不断产生创新，并为自然选择提供养分，也影响着传播过程的进化。这篇综述基于 2015 年在马斯特里赫特举行的 FEMS 微生物学大会的安德烈·洛夫奖演讲中提出的概念。
