Читать книгу Algorithms in Bioinformatics - Paul A. Gagniuc - Страница 53

Biological literature is probably the most sophisticated among all sciences and can be particularly overwhelming. An introduction was made to some important concepts that can provide an overview on living organisms, such as the emergence of life, classification, number of species, the origins of eukaryotic cells, the endosymbiosis theory, organelles, reductive evolution, the importance of HGT, and the main hypotheses regarding the origin of eukaryotic multicellularity. Among the biological concepts described here, some have wider implications. Examples of genome-less organelles, such as hydrogenosomes, or processes such as the HGT, question life as we understand it. Endosymbionts best explain the significance of the environment and also explain the distribution of life in a blurry, nonunitary context. In other words, endosymbiosis widens the threshold of life and shows how difficult it is to place a border between how much life resides inside or outside the cell. Moreover, the HGT appears to connect all the species on earth to a greater or lesser extent. Much evidence shows that some of these ancient processes (e.g. catalytic RNAs) are likely adding or subtracting innovative mechanisms for continuous adaptations among different species (if not all).