Thermodynamic selection: mechanisms and scenarios

Abstract

Thermodynamic selection is an indirect competition between agents feeding on the same energy resource and obeying the laws of thermodynamics. We examine scenarios of this selection, where the agent is modeled as a heat-engine coupled to two thermal baths and extracting work from the high-temperature bath. The agents can apply different work-extracting, game-theoretical strategies, e.g. the maximum power or the maximum efficiency. They can also have a fixed structure or be adaptive. Depending on whether the resource (i.e. the high-temperature bath) is infinite or finite, the fitness of the agent relates to the work-power or the total extracted work. These two selection scenarios lead to increasing or decreasing efficiencies of the work-extraction, respectively. The scenarios are illustrated via plant competition for sunlight, and the competition between different ATP production pathways. We also show that certain general concepts of game-theory and ecology--the prisoner's dilemma and the maximal power principle--emerge from the thermodynamics of competing agents. We emphasize the role of adaptation in developing efficient work-extraction mechanisms.

The Impact of Hormesis, Neuronal Stress Response, and Reproduction, upon Clinical Aging: A Narrative Review

“…There is a balance between allocation of resources to the different organs in any given organism. These resources could be allocated for damage repair or for growth of the organism [ 125 ]. Specifically, at the current stage of human evolution, nature has a propensity to favor allocation of repair resources to the germline [ 126 ], in order to assure the survival of the species, even if this means that allocation of resources to other organs (including the brain) will have to be suboptimal [ 127 , 128 ].…”

Microbial diversity and ecological complexity emerging from environmental variation and horizontal gene transfer in a simple mathematical model

“…Horizontal gene transfer plays a crucial role in the preservation of genome diversity [30][31][32][33][34][35][36] but the effects of environmental variations on the microbiome composition remain poorly understood. Evolutionary processes in populations in time-varying environments can drastically differ from those in fixed environments [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. The complexity of microbial communities including multiple strains that persist for extended periods of time and widespread HGT among them call for developing theoretical models describing the relationships between strains within complex microbial communities, that are expected to compete with each other, but also constantly exchange genes via HGT.…”