The Positive Role of Parasites in the Origins of Life
The Positive Role of Parasites in the Origins of Life
复制标题
寄生虫在生命起源中的积极作用
DOI：
10.1109/alife.2013.6602424
复制
发表时间：
2013
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
and T. Ikegami
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
N. Virgo;T. Froese;and T. Ikegami
生命起源的一个问题是如何减轻寄生副反应。众所周知，空间自组织可以帮助解决这一问题，使自催化化学系统对寄生物种的入侵更加稳健。在之前的工作中，我们已经证明，在这种情况下，寄生反应实际上是有益的。在这里，我们首次展示了一个系统，其中寄生自催化循环的存在不仅是有益的，而且对于其宿主的持久性实际上是必要的。这是由于寄生虫对系统空间组织的影响而发生的；尽管寄生虫对其宿主的直接影响纯粹是负面的，但宿主-寄生虫系统比单独的宿主更稳定。我们简要讨论对生命起源的影响。
One problem in the origins of life is how parasitic side-reactions can be mitigated. It is known that spatial self-organisation can help with this, making autocatalytic chemical systems more robust to invasion by parasitic species. In previous work we have shown that in such scenarios parasitic reactions can actually be beneficial. Here we demonstrate for the first time a system in which the presence of a parasitic autocatalytic cycle is not only beneficial but actually necessary for the persistence of its host. This occurs due to the effect the parasite has on the spatial organisation of the system; the host-parasite system is more stable than the host alone, despite the fact that the parasite's direct effect on its host is purely negative. We briefly discuss the implications for the origins of life.