EvoEvo: Evolution of Evolvable Systems

EvoEvo is an ERC Advanced Grant Project lead by PI Ers Szathmry and

co-PI Andrew Grifths.

This project has three pillars, linked to one another by thought pattern
transfer involving major transitions, formal chemistry and replicator
dynamics. In the rst pillar, critically strengthened by the participation of
the Co-PI Andrew Grifths we theoretically and experimentally investigate
the emergence of RNA replicators, their cooperation in protocells and the
origin of chromosomes, transcription and translation. This includes
simulation of the emergence of larger genomes and the coevolution of the
latter with membrane properties and a progressively enzymatized
metabolism. In the second pillar we propose that replicators exist in the
brain, and that such replicators underwent a transition from limited to
unlimited heredity in a manner analogous to the transition from attractor-
based (metabolic) to template-based (genetic) inheritance in the origin of life.
Once such a replicator-based dynamics is in place, principles from
evolutionary biology and population genetics can be applied to neuroscience.
We focus on possible evolutionary dynamics within the brain rather than on
the genetic preconditions that make this dynamics possible, in order to better
understand some key cognitive faculties like reinforcement learning,
insight and language. In the third pillar we investigate the origin of the
adaptive immune system. The dening characteristic of adaptive immunity is
the ability to shape the targeting of immune reactions during the lifespan of
the individual, which occurs by an evolutionary process based on the random
generation and selection of immune receptor specicities. The evolution of
adaptive immunity can thus be regarded as the evolution of
evolvability within the immune system, and it also constitutes a major
transition in the way in which information is transmitted between cell
generations. The transition involved the emergence of a new level of
selection (competition of lymphocyte clones) and a shift from limited to
unlimited heredity in the immune repertoire. We would like to become a lot
clearer as to how and why this happened.
One of the possible mechanisms of neuronal replication, in analogy with
template replication in chmeistry. In this case it is the local activity
connectivity pattern that gets copied. This process requires Hebbian and
spike time-dependent plasticity (STDP).
Ers Szathmry
12
, dm Kun
12
, Istvn Zachr
12
Andrs Szilgyi
12
and

Andrew Griffiths
3
1
Parmenides Center for the Conceptual Foundations of Science, Pullach/Munich,
2
Institute of Biology,
Etvs University, Budapest,
3
Laboratory of Biochemistry, Ecole Suprieure de Physique Chimie
Industrielles, Paris
How compartments can be made fuse, grow and divide in (semi)automated
microuidic devices (in the lab of Prof. Grifths).
The stochastic corrector model is a true two-level selection model,
developed by Prof. Szathmry to resolve the earliest intragenomic conict.
Functional templates are replicating in dividing protocells. Protocells with
more balanced gene composition have higher tness.
How microuidics can mimic early protocell lifecycles. This is a remarkable
attempt to combine theory with experiment, and science with tecchnology.
Further reading:
Maynard Smith, J. & Szathmry, E. (1995) The Major Transitions in
Evolution. Freeman & Co., Oxford.
Vasas, V., Szathmry, E. & Santos, M. (2010) Lack of evolvability in self-
sustaining autocatalytic networks constraints metabolism-rst scenarios
for the origin of life. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 107, 1470-1475
Szathmry, E. (2011) Evolution. To group or not to group. Science 334,
1648-1649.
Fernando, C. Szathmry, E., Husbands, P. (2012) Selectionist and
evolutionary approaches to brain function: A critical appraisal. Front.
Comput. Neurosci. 6, 24.