Yom Aria, Lewis Nathan E
University of California, San Diego, Department of Physics, USA and Center for Molecular Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA.
University of Georgia, University of California, San Diego, Departments of Pediatrics and Bioengineering, USA and Center for Molecular Medicine, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Athens, USA.
Phys Rev E. 2025 May;111(5-1):054414. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.111.054414.
Transposons are small, self-replicating DNA sequences found in every branch of life. Often, one transposon will parasitize another, forming a tiny intracellular ecosystem. In some species these ecosystems thrive, while in others they go extinct, yet little is known about when or why this occurs. Here, we present a stochastic model for these ecosystems and discover a transition from stable coexistence to population collapse when the propensity for a transposon to replicate comes to exceed that of its parasites. Our model also predicts that replication rates should be low in equilibrium, which appears to be true of many transposons in nature.
转座子是在生命的每个分支中都能找到的小型自我复制DNA序列。通常，一个转座子会寄生在另一个转座子上，形成一个微小的细胞内生态系统。在某些物种中，这些生态系统蓬勃发展，而在其他物种中则灭绝了，但对于这种情况何时或为何发生却知之甚少。在这里，我们为这些生态系统提出了一个随机模型，并发现当一个转座子的复制倾向超过其寄生转座子的复制倾向时，会从稳定共存转变为种群崩溃。我们的模型还预测，在平衡状态下复制率应该很低，这似乎在自然界中的许多转座子中都是如此。
