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.