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Thermodynamics of the prokaryote nuclear zone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2008

F.N. Braun
F.N. Braun
Affiliation:
University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

In studying the functional and evolutionary significance of compartmentation in biology, it is instructive to consider its thermodynamic context as a conceptual centrepiece of entropy and phase transitions. Here we focus specifically on compartmentation at the intracellular level of microbial organellar cytology. Via a colloid-statistical argument, supplemented with order of magnitude estimates for the relevant physical quantities, we find that the DNA-containing nucleoid of prokaryotes presents a plausible nucleation site for phase-transitional behaviour, provided the genome exceeds some threshold size of the order of 10 Mbp. Large genome size seems capable in this respect of seeding compartmentation effects such as the nuclear envelope of Planctomycetes bacteria, which is widely regarded as a possible precursor to the nuclear envelope of eukaryotes.

Keywords

Microbial originscellular evolutionbiological statistical mechanics
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , April 2008 , pp. 183 - 185
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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