Skene Keith R
Biosphere Research Institute, Letham, Angus, DD8 2PY, UK.
Biosystems. 2020 Apr;190:104101. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2020.104101. Epub 2020 Feb 4.
The origins, evolution and functioning of the Biosphere have occupied humankind for as long as recorded history has existed. In this paper we examine the claims of thermodynamics to be the framework within which we can understand the evolution, functioning and development of the Biosphere, exploring the evidence from ecology, molecular science and evolutionary biology, and particularly focussing upon the maximum entropy production principle (MEPP), and its explanatory potential in terms of many of the logistic relationships found within the Biosphere. We introduce the genetic entropy paradox, where the DNA increases in terms of internal information entropy, as the genetic code is continuously randomized through mutation, and yet this leads to increasing external entropy production, as increasingly more complicated structures and functions are produced in the form of new protein morphologies and metabolic pathways (again determined by the bioenergetic context). We suggest that the central dogma acts as a form of entropy exchange mechanism, but at the core of this is change in information entropy, which increases within the genetic code, and decreases within the organism. This would appear to be a truly unique event, and highlights a key interaction between two levels of organization within the Biosphere, the genome and the proteome, in terms of entropy production. The Biosphere is seen as being composed of a series of self-organizing sub-groups, each maximizing entropy production within the constraints of time, feedback and system constraints. The entropic production of the Biosphere is thus an emergent property.
自人类有记录的历史以来，生物圈的起源、演化和功能就一直占据着人们的关注。在本文中，我们审视了热力学作为一种框架的主张，即在这个框架内我们能够理解生物圈的演化、功能和发展，探索来自生态学、分子科学和进化生物学的证据，尤其聚焦于最大熵产生原理（MEPP），以及它在解释生物圈中发现的许多逻辑关系方面的潜力。我们引入遗传熵悖论，即随着遗传密码通过突变不断随机化，DNA的内部信息熵增加，但与此同时，随着越来越复杂的结构和功能以新的蛋白质形态和代谢途径的形式产生（同样由生物能量背景决定），这导致外部熵产生增加。我们认为中心法则起到了一种熵交换机制的作用，但核心在于信息熵的变化，它在遗传密码中增加，而在生物体中减少。这似乎是一个真正独特的事件，并且从熵产生的角度突出了生物圈中两个组织层次——基因组和蛋白质组之间的关键相互作用。生物圈被视为由一系列自组织子群体组成，每个子群体在时间、反馈和系统约束的限制内使熵产生最大化。因此，生物圈的熵产生是一种涌现性质。
