Accepted:
December 2004
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/vol12/msid57/ | © Copyright 2008 | |||
| Volume 12 | Received: Accepted: |
November 2004 December 2004 |
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Building a better worm: Organisation and evolution in development
Paul-Michael Agapow |
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| Abstract | |
| Development is one of the most complex of biological processes, but understanding how such complexity develops and evolves remains unclear. This failure is largely due to a lack of any credible means of quantifying this complexity on more than intuitive grounds. However, developmental lineage complexity can be calculated by treating the lineage as the result of a program, based on ideas from algorithmic information theory. If lineage complexity is equated with the program complexity, an insight is gained into the organisation of development. Under such analysis, the embryonic lineages of four metazoans are significantly simpler and more modular than expected by chance. Also, evolutionary simulations show the complexity of the lineages surveyed is close to optimal in terms of efficiency. This is consistent with selection that modularises and decomposes development to local interactions. | |
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Multimedia Links (none) Reference Links (none) Citation Reference Paul-Michael Agapow 2008, Building a better worm: Organisation and evolution in development, Complexity International, Volume 12, Paper ID: msid57, URL: http://www.complexity.org.au/vol12/msid57/ |
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