Mean mass-specific metabolic rates are strikingly similar across life's major domains: Evidence for life's metabolic optimum
Mean mass-specific metabolic rates are strikingly similar across life's major domains: Evidence for life's metabolic optimum
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.0802148105
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发表时间：
2008-11-04
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Gavrilov, Valery M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Makarieva, Anastassia M.;Gorshkov, Victor G.;Gavrilov, Valery M.
一个基本但尚未回答的生物学问题是，地球上不同的生命形式平均每单位消耗多少能量。每单位时间的质量来维持生命。在这里，使用迄今为止最大的数据库，包括地球上大部分生物多样性的3,006个物种-从细菌到大象，藻类到树苗-我们表明新陈代谢在所有生命中都显示出惊人的内稳态。我们证明，尽管所调查的物种之间存在巨大的生物化学，生理学和生态学差异，体重变化超过10（20）倍，但在生理休息时显示的主要分类群的平均代谢率收敛在0.3至9 W kg（-1）的狭窄范围内。如果生命作为一个整体符合普遍的四分之一幂或三分之一幂异速生长比例定律，那么与最小和最大生物体的平均代谢率之间的4,000至65,000倍差异相比，不同生命形式之间的30倍差异代表了一个非常小的范围。观察到的基础代谢率在一个狭窄范围内的广泛收敛表明，适合这个生理窗口的生物体设计受到了所有生命主要王国的自然选择的青睐，因此这个范围可能被认为是整个生命物质的最佳选择。
A fundamental but unanswered biological question asks how much energy, on average, Earth's different life forms spend per unit. mass per unit time to remain alive. Here, using the largest database to date, for 3,006 species that includes most of the range of biological diversity on the planet-from bacteria to elephants, and algae to sapling trees-we show that metabolism displays a striking degree of homeostasis across all of life. We demonstrate that, despite the enormous biochemical, physiological, and ecological differences between the surveyed species that vary over 10(20)-fold in body mass, mean metabolic rates of major taxonomic groups displayed at physiological rest converge on a narrow range from 0.3 to 9 W kg(-1). This 30-fold variation among life's disparate forms represents a remarkably small range compared with the 4,000- to 65,000-fold difference between the mean metabolic rates of the smallest and largest organisms that would be observed if life as a whole conformed to universal quarter-power or third-power allometric scaling laws. The observed broad convergence on a narrow range of basal metabolic rates suggests that organismal designs that fit in this physiological window have been favored by natural selection across all of life's major kingdoms, and that this range might therefore be considered as optimal for living matter as a whole.