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Symbiosis as a model for a new biology
Lhotský, Josef ; Markoš, Anton (advisor) ; Černý, Robert (referee)
Contemporary biology belongs among the most diversified sciences; yet one of its most fundamental and controversial questions is surprisingly: "What is life?". The aim of this study is to point out that biology is special among other natural sciences because its need of the notion of meaning. Meaning takes the central position in the biological rea-soning. Compared to other sciences, biology has to reflect the dimension of information and its interpretation: language-like properties, communication and interpretation belong to the basic characteristics of life. In spite of the fact, most contemporary theories of evo-lution deny active participation of living beings on the very process - living being come out of its description as puppets or zombies controlled by external forces. As a remedy from such a situation, biology should start with a new model for living entities. A bene-ficial methapor seems to be that of natural languages, i.e. an analogy between a net of historical interactions and conventional ways of interpretation of meaning in (i) living entities and (ii) in system of natural languages. I consider as the most appropriate biolo-gical systems for modeling of such a network of symbiotic interactions, i. e. the pheno-menon of symbiosis and especially symbiogenesis. Keywords: life,...
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Anaerobic ciliates as a model group for studying the biodiversity and symbioses in anoxic environments
Rotterová, Johana ; Čepička, Ivan (advisor) ; Gentekaki, Eleni (referee) ; Silberman, Jeffrey David (referee)
Ciliates are also of the most extensively studied and diverse groups of unicellular eukaryotes, and yet, their anaerobic representatives have been largely neglected; in part due to culturing difficulties. Although all main ciliate lineages contain anaerobes, their diversity and evolution of anaerobiosis are especially poorly understood and just starting to gain attention. In fact, Ciliophora is an excellent model group to study adaptations to life in anoxia, since it, apart from the aerobic majority, includes free-living and endobiotic obligately anaerobic lineages, facultative anaerobes, microaerophiles, and microaerotolerant species. The diversity of Metopida, the free-living order of obligately anaerobic class Armophorea, has been partially revised and significantly broadened during the past years, including numerous redescriptions using modern methods, as well as the description of novel families Tropidoatractidae and Apometopidae, several genera, and multiple species. Oxygen plays a crucial role in ATP production via oxidative phosphorylation that takes place in the mitochondrion in most known eukaryotes. Nevertheless, anaerobic ciliates, among many other eukaryotes that have adapted to low oxygen concentrations or even its absence, have modified their mitochondria and energetic metabolism to...
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Symbiosis as a model for a new biology
Lhotský, Josef ; Markoš, Anton (advisor) ; Černý, Robert (referee)
Contemporary biology belongs among the most diversified sciences; yet one of its most fundamental and controversial questions is surprisingly: "What is life?". The aim of this study is to point out that biology is special among other natural sciences because its need of the notion of meaning. Meaning takes the central position in the biological rea-soning. Compared to other sciences, biology has to reflect the dimension of information and its interpretation: language-like properties, communication and interpretation belong to the basic characteristics of life. In spite of the fact, most contemporary theories of evo-lution deny active participation of living beings on the very process - living being come out of its description as puppets or zombies controlled by external forces. As a remedy from such a situation, biology should start with a new model for living entities. A bene-ficial methapor seems to be that of natural languages, i.e. an analogy between a net of historical interactions and conventional ways of interpretation of meaning in (i) living entities and (ii) in system of natural languages. I consider as the most appropriate biolo-gical systems for modeling of such a network of symbiotic interactions, i. e. the pheno-menon of symbiosis and especially symbiogenesis. Keywords: life,...
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