Work

Natural search algorithms as a bridge between organisms, evolution, and ecology

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: The ability to navigate is a hallmark of living systems, from single cells to higher animals. Searching for targets, such as food or mates in particular, is one of the fundamental navigational tasks many organisms must execute to survive and reproduce. Here, we argue that a recent surge of studies of the proximate mechanisms that underlie search behavior offers a new opportunity to integrate the biophysics and neuroscience of sensory systems with ecological and evolutionary processes, closing a feedback loop that promises exciting new avenues of scientific exploration at the frontier of systems biology.

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1606195113

Authors: Andrew M. Hein, Francesco Carrara, Douglas R. Brumley, Roman Stocker, Simon A. Levin

Institutions: Princeton University, ETH Zurich, Institute of Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Language: English

Topic: Diffusion and Search Dynamics

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: bronze