Structural Mutation Before Genes: Constraint-Biased Propagation and the Divergence of Regulatory Architectures in Early Evolution
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| Format: | Recurso digital |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866901093576867840 |
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| author | van der Merwe, Emile S. |
| author_facet | van der Merwe, Emile S. |
| contents | <p><span>Evolutionary theory robustly explains biological diversification once genetic heredity is established, yet leaves unresolved how meaningful variation and selection operated before genes existed. Here we introduce SM1 (Structural Mutation Framework 1), a pre-genetic evolutionary regime in which variation arises through changes in physical and regulatory architecture rather than encoded information. In dense, planet-scale bacterial populations, incomplete or asymmetric integrations generate new compartments, constrained volumes, and altered flow paths that modify chemical retention, reaction timing, and persistence.</span></p> <p><span>We identify Constraint-Biased Propagation (CBP) as a key transmission mechanism in this regime, whereby stabilised structures locally reshape physical and chemical constraints, biasing subsequent interactions toward similar configurations without genetic inheritance, signalling, or replication. These processes give rise to proto-digestion through chemical delay, internal flow as retention scales, and the structural capture of aerobic metabolism within local oxygen niches prior to global oxygenation.</span></p> <p><span>Escalating energetic throughput forces regulatory resolution into three stable architectures: plants, which externalise volatile regulation at surfaces; fungi, which distribute regulation across networks; and animals, which internalise regulation within shared volumes. In animals, volumetric regulation necessitates rhythmic actuation, with the heartbeat emerging as its characteristic signature. Genetic heredity is thus reframed as a later mechanism that stabilises and refines architectures already shaped by physical constraint.</span></p> <p><span>By situating structural mutation prior to informational mutation, this framework provides a coherent, constraint-driven account of the transition from chemistry to complex life without invoking gene-first assumptions or improbable evolutionary leaps.</span></p> |
| format | Recurso digital |
| id | zenodo_https___doi_org_10_5281_zenodo_18071356 |
| institution | Zenodo |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publisher | Zenodo |
| record_format | zenodo |
| spellingShingle | Structural Mutation Before Genes: Constraint-Biased Propagation and the Divergence of Regulatory Architectures in Early Evolution van der Merwe, Emile S. structural mutation pre-genetic evolution constraint-biased propagation compartmentalisation regulatory architecture origin of biological complexity evolution of circulation Origin of Life <p><span>Evolutionary theory robustly explains biological diversification once genetic heredity is established, yet leaves unresolved how meaningful variation and selection operated before genes existed. Here we introduce SM1 (Structural Mutation Framework 1), a pre-genetic evolutionary regime in which variation arises through changes in physical and regulatory architecture rather than encoded information. In dense, planet-scale bacterial populations, incomplete or asymmetric integrations generate new compartments, constrained volumes, and altered flow paths that modify chemical retention, reaction timing, and persistence.</span></p> <p><span>We identify Constraint-Biased Propagation (CBP) as a key transmission mechanism in this regime, whereby stabilised structures locally reshape physical and chemical constraints, biasing subsequent interactions toward similar configurations without genetic inheritance, signalling, or replication. These processes give rise to proto-digestion through chemical delay, internal flow as retention scales, and the structural capture of aerobic metabolism within local oxygen niches prior to global oxygenation.</span></p> <p><span>Escalating energetic throughput forces regulatory resolution into three stable architectures: plants, which externalise volatile regulation at surfaces; fungi, which distribute regulation across networks; and animals, which internalise regulation within shared volumes. In animals, volumetric regulation necessitates rhythmic actuation, with the heartbeat emerging as its characteristic signature. Genetic heredity is thus reframed as a later mechanism that stabilises and refines architectures already shaped by physical constraint.</span></p> <p><span>By situating structural mutation prior to informational mutation, this framework provides a coherent, constraint-driven account of the transition from chemistry to complex life without invoking gene-first assumptions or improbable evolutionary leaps.</span></p> |
| title | Structural Mutation Before Genes: Constraint-Biased Propagation and the Divergence of Regulatory Architectures in Early Evolution |
| topic | structural mutation pre-genetic evolution constraint-biased propagation compartmentalisation regulatory architecture origin of biological complexity evolution of circulation Origin of Life |
| url | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18071356 |