A probabilistic framework for identifying biosignatures using Pathway Complexity.
A probabilistic framework for identifying biosignatures using Pathway Complexity.
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DOI：
10.1098/rsta.2016.0342
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发表时间：
2017-12-28
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Cronin L
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Marshall SM;Murray ARG;Cronin L
生物与无生命物质的区别之一是它们能够大量地产生类似的复杂或非随机结构。从DNA序列到折叠的蛋白质结构，活细胞，微生物群落和多细胞结构，生物学中的物质配置可以很容易地与非生物物质组装区分开。许多复杂的人工制品，从普通的生物制品到人类的工具，尽管它们不是生物，但最终都是由生物过程产生的——无论这些过程发生在细胞或社会的规模上，它们都是生命系统的结果。虽然这些物体没有生命，但它们不能随机形成，因为它们是生物有机体的产物，因此要么是技术上的，要么是文化上的生物印记。一种旨在评估复杂物体可能的生物特征的通用方法，可能有助于探索宇宙中新的生命形式。然而，如何可能创建这样一个自包含的方法并不明显。这将要求我们严格地证明一个给定的人工制品太复杂，不可能是偶然形成的。在本文中，我们提出了一种新型的复杂性度量，我们称之为“路径复杂性”，它不仅使我们能够阈值非生物-生物区分，而且还展示了一种基于物体丰度和复杂性的概率方法，可用于明确地将复杂物体分配为生物特征。我们希望这种方法不仅能开启对地球以外生物特征的探索，还能让我们探索地球上新的生物类型，并确定在实验室中发现的复杂化学系统何时可以被认为是活着的。这篇文章是“重新定义生命起源”主题的一部分。
One thing that discriminates living things from inanimate matter is their ability to generate similarly complex or non-random structures in a large abundance. From DNA sequences to folded protein structures, living cells, microbial communities and multicellular structures, the material configurations in biology can easily be distinguished from non-living material assemblies. Many complex artefacts, from ordinary bioproducts to human tools, though they are not living things, are ultimately produced by biological processes—whether those processes occur at the scale of cells or societies, they are the consequences of living systems. While these objects are not living, they cannot randomly form, as they are the product of a biological organism and hence are either technological or cultural biosignatures. A generalized approach that aims to evaluate complex objects as possible biosignatures could be useful to explore the cosmos for new life forms. However, it is not obvious how it might be possible to create such a self-contained approach. This would require us to prove rigorously that a given artefact is too complex to have formed by chance. In this paper, we present a new type of complexity measure, which we call ‘Pathway Complexity’, that allows us not only to threshold the abiotic–biotic divide, but also to demonstrate a probabilistic approach based on object abundance and complexity which can be used to unambiguously assign complex objects as biosignatures. We hope that this approach will not only open up the search for biosignatures beyond the Earth, but also allow us to explore the Earth for new types of biology, and to determine when a complex chemical system discovered in the laboratory could be considered alive. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Reconceptualizing the origins of life’.
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影响因子：
--
作者：
SHANNON, CE
通讯作者：
SHANNON, CE
DOI：
10.1021/ci9901183
发表时间：
2000-07-01
期刊：
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCES
影响因子：
--
作者：
Nikolic, S;Trinajstic, N;Tolic, IM
通讯作者：
Tolic, IM
DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1205223109
发表时间：
2012-06-19
影响因子：
11.1
作者：
Oze, Christopher;Jones, L. Camille;Rosenbauer, Robert J.
通讯作者：
Rosenbauer, Robert J.
影响因子：
4.5
作者：
RISSANEN, J
通讯作者：
RISSANEN, J
DOI：
10.1073/pnas.97.9.4463
发表时间：
2000-04-25
影响因子：
11.1
作者：
Adami, C;Ofria, C;Collier, TC
通讯作者：
Collier, TC