Modeling the evolution of interconnected processes: It is the song and the singers

Abstract

Recently, Doolittle and Inkpen formulated a thought provoking theory, asserting that evolution by natural selection was responsible for the sideways evolution of two radically different kinds of selective units (also called Domains). The former entities, termed singers, correspond to the usual objects studied by evolutionary biologists (gene, genomes, individuals, species, etc.), whereas the later, termed songs, correspond to reproduced biological and ecosystemic functions, processes, information, and memes. Singers perform songs through selected patterns of interactions, meaning that a wealth of critical phenomena might receive novel evolutionary explanations. However, this theory did not provide an empirical approach to study evolution in such a broadened context. Here, we show that analyzing songs and singers, using patterns of interaction networks as a common ontology for both, offers a novel, actionable, inclusive and mathematical way to analyze not only the reproduction but also the evolution and fitness of biological and ecosystemic interconnected processes.

Networked collective microbiomes and the rise of subcellular 'units of life'

“…Following in the footsteps of a recent iteration of processual ontology termed ITSATS (It's the song and the singers) [15], this article seeks to shift the frame of reference away from focusing on entities to an approach that emphasizes both processes and objects (songs and singers).…”

“…Bapteste and Papale, who put forward ITSATS, state that the distinctions between objects and processes are a tributary of the hierarchical level at which we seek to observe patterns of interaction. 'At any level, objects (singers) interacting to produce a song can be modelled as songs themselves, performed by other interacting objects (singers) at the next level down' [15].…”

“…It's the Song and the Singers (ITSATS) ITSATS proposes a more dynamic multidimensional and multiscalar approach to facilitate our understanding of biological processes in which '(s)ingers like songs can be real units of selection' [15].…”

Global climate change, diet, and the complex relationship between human host and microbiome: Towards an integrated picture

“…Diverse evolutionary and ecological models of microbiome establishment, stability, and transmission across generations have been proposed. [70][71][72][73][74][75] The extensive crosstalk between the human host and its resident microbiome suggests that they have co-evolved or may have co-adapted, that is, the human microbiome has co-evolved with the host, adapting to the human ecosystem and developing mutual benefits. [33,34,76,77] Consistent with this view, only a minute subset of known bacteria phyla occur in the human ecosystem.…”

The Epistemic Revolution Induced by Microbiome Studies: An Interdisciplinary View

“…Accordingly, microbiome studies support a third general feature that emerges in common within several disciplines: the desire to use openly multi-scalar interaction networks as an explanatory framework to investigate phenomena. The multi-scalar nature of these networks stems from the fact that microbes in interactions with their hosts and/or with their environments have typically different spatial sizes, and usually different lifespans, generation times, and turn-over rates, hence different evolutionary rates than their biological hosts, or than the physicochemical cycles to which these microbes contribute [74,75]. Thus, convergent clues that modeling multi-scalar interdependence is becoming a common goal for many disciplines acknowledging the causal effects of microbiomes can be found in the novel evolutionary models of Gaïa, in the descriptions of oceanographic models of biogeochemical cycles dynamics, or in the ecological models of microbial cryosphere dynamics that explicitly model the impact of microbiomes in a context of global warming, as well as in the emerging idea that right-holders with transient microbial components deserve to be treated as entities connected through multi-scalar interaction networks.…”