Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: In complex systems, the interplay between nonlinear and stochastic dynamics, e.g., J. Monod’s necessity and chance, gives rise to an evolutionary process in Darwinian sense, in terms of discrete jumps among attractors, with punctuated equilibria, spontaneous random “mutations” and “adaptations”. On an evolutionary time scale it produces sustainable diversity among individuals in a homogeneous population rather than convergence as usually predicted by a deterministic dynamics. The emergent discrete states in such a system, i.e., attractors, have natural robustness against both internal and external perturbations. Phenotypic states of a biological cell, a mesoscopic nonlinear stochastic open biochemical system, could be understood through such a perspective.
Source: Quantitative Biology
Author: Hong Qian
Institution: University of Washington
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2152720190