Related papers: Why so many sperm cells?
It has recently been suggested that the fundamental haploid-diploid cycle of eukaryotic sex exploits a rudimentary form of the Baldwin effect. Thereafter the other associated phenomena can be explained as evolution tuning the amount and…
The theory of lithopanspermia proposes the natural exchange of organisms between solar system bodies through meteorites. The focus of this theory comprises three distinct stages: planetary ejection, interplanetary transit and planetary…
Macroscopic, phenomenological models have proven useful as concise framings of our understandings in fields from statistical physics to economics to biology. Constructing a phenomenological model for development would provide a framework…
Computer experiments that mirror the evolutionary dynamics of sexual and asexual organisms as they occur in nature, tested features proposed to explain the evolution of sexual recombination. Results show that this evolution is better…
All life, including cells and artificial protocells, must integrate diverse molecules into a single unit in order to reproduce. Despite expected pressure to evolve a simple system with the fastest replication speed, the mechanism by which…
In many animals parental gametes unite to form a zygote that develops into an adult with gonads that, in turn, produce gametes. Interruption of this germinal cycle by prezygotic or postzygotic reproductive barriers can result in two…
An asexual set of primitive bacteria is simulated with a bit-string Penna model with a Fermi function for survival. A recent hypothesis by Jan, Stauffer and Moseley on the evolution of sex from asexual cells as a strategy for trying to…
Cell differentiation in multicellular organisms is a complex process whose mechanism can be understood by a reductionist approach, in which the individual processes that control the generation of different cell types are identified.…
Globally, infertility rates are increasing, with 2.5\% of all births being assisted by in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in 2022. Male infertility is the cause for approximately half of these cases. The quality of sperm DNA has substantial…
A key process in the life of any multicellular organism is its development from a single egg into a full grown adult. The first step in this process often consists of forming a tissue layer out of randomly placed cells on the surface of the…
Most of the mammal species hold polygynous mating systems. The majority of the marriage systems of mankind were also polygynous over civilized history, however, socially imposed monogamy gradually prevails throughout the world. This is…
Using a lattice model based on Monte Carlo simulations, we study the role of the reproduction pattern on the fate of an evolving population. Each individual is under the selection pressure from the environment and random mutations. The…
Populations of mammalian stem cells commonly exhibit considerable cell-cell variability. However, the functional role of this diversity is unclear. Here, we analyze expression fluctuations of the stem cell surface marker Sca1 in mouse…
We introduce and study the dynamics of an \emph{immortal} critical branching process. In the classic, critical branching process, particles give birth to a single offspring or die at the same rates. Even though the average population is…
The process controlling the diferentiation of stem, or progenitor, cells into one specific functional direction is called lineage specification. An important characteristic of this process is the multi-lineage priming, which requires the…
The evolution of life has been a big enigma despite rapid advancements in the fields of biochemistry, astrobiology, and astrophysics in recent years. The answer to this puzzle has been as mind-boggling as the riddle relating to evolution of…
The evolution of complexity has been a central theme for Biology [2] and Artificial Life research [1]. It is generally agreed that complexity has increased in our universe, giving way to life, multi-cellularity, societies, and systems of…
Evolutionary game dynamics are often studied in the context of different population structures. Here we propose a new population structure that is inspired by simple multicellular life forms. In our model, cells reproduce but can stay…
This paper considers a natural variant of the $d$-dimensional multitype contact process in which individuals can be fertile or sterile. Fertile individuals of type $i$ give birth to an offspring of their own type at rate $\lambda_i$, the…
The male fruit fly produces ~1.8 mm long sperm, thousands of which can be stored until mating in a ~200 micron sac, the seminal vesicle. While the evolutionary pressures driving such extreme sperm (flagellar) lengths have long been…