The relative simplicity of RNA-like replicators enables us to explicitly model a biologically relevant genotype-phenotype-interaction mapping of individual replicators, whereby we avoid preconceiving the ecological functionality of genotypes (information) or the ecological organization of replicators in the model. We here investigate the role of this interdependence for the evolution of complexity in a simulated RNA-like replicator system. Thus, organization and information are mutually dependent, and this interdependence is, as this study will show, a key to understanding the evolution of biological complexity. The patterns in nucleotide sequences are biologically functional only in conjunction with the organization (e.g., consider the function of a regulatory gene). Hence, the above question boils down to how genetic information increases through evolution. As is well recognized, the formation of biological organization – be it of protein complexes or of ecosystems – is ultimately instructed according to the genetic information, which is stored as the patterns of nucleotide sequences in genomes. How complexity can increase through evolution has been one of the most important questions in biology. For the full reviews, please go to the Reviewers' comments section. This article was reviewed by Eugene V Koonin, Eörs Szathmáry (nominated by Anthony M Poole), and Chris Adami. Hence, the evolutionary feedback between information and organization, and thereby the evolution of complexity. Realizing such a phenotype, novel genotypes can evolve, which, in turn, results in the evolution of more complex ecological organization. Namely, the emergent ecosystem supplies a context in which a novel phenotype gains functionality. The interdependence of information and organization can play an important role for the evolution of complexity. Finally, the evolutionary dynamics is shown to significantly depend on the mutation rate. The results also show that the stability of the system crucially depends on the spatial pattern formation of replicators. This also makes the current replicator system extremely stable upon the evolution of parasites. The analysis of this diversification reveals that parasitic replicators, which have been thought to destabilize the replicator's diversity, actually promote the evolution of diversity through generating a novel "niche" for catalytic replicators. During this diversification, the species evolve through acquiring unique genotypes with distinct ecological functionality. The results showed that a population of replicators, originally consisting of one genotype, evolves to form a complex ecosystem of up to four species. In particular, the model assumes that interactions among replicators – to replicate or to be replicated – depend on their secondary structures and base-pair matching. The simplicity of the system allows us to explicitly model the genotype-phenotype-interaction mapping of individual replicators, whereby we avoid preconceiving the functionality of genotypes (information) or the ecological organization of replicators in the model. Here we investigate the evolution of complexity in a simulated RNA-like replicator system. Therefore, to obtain a more complete picture of the evolution of complexity, we must study the evolution of both information and organization. It is well recognized that the formation of biological organization – be it of molecules or ecosystems – is ultimately instructed by the genetic information, whereas it is also true that the genetic information is functional only in the context of the organization. The evolution of complexity is often observed as the increase of genetic information or that of the organizational complexity of a system. The evolution of complexity is among the most important questions in biology.
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