New insight into molecular interactions throws open a ‘window to evolution’

Mathematicians have uncovered details about the universal explanatory framework for molecular interactions that help them adapt to new conditions

Mathematicians have uncovered details about the universal explanatory framework for molecular interactions that help them adapt to new and variable conditions while maintaining tight control over key survival properties.

Throwing open a "window to evolution", the researchers said, their findings represented a blueprint for adaptation-capable signalling networks across all domains of life and for the design of synthetic biosystems.

"Our study considers a process called robust perfect adaptation (RPA) whereby biological systems, from individual cells to entire organisms, maintain important molecules within narrow concentration ranges despite continually being bombarded with disturbances to the system," said Robyn Araujo, from Queensland University of Technology School of Mathematical Sciences, Australia, and corresponding author on the study.

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The researchers said that they had discovered fundamental molecular-level design principles that organised all forms of biological complexity into robustness-promoting, and ultimately, survival-promoting, chemical reaction structures.

The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Araujo said they had found that molecules of living systems cannot simply 'transmit' biochemical signals but must make 'computations' on these signals.