The driving force behind genomic diversity

TL;DR

This paper proposes a thermodynamic perspective on genomic diversity, suggesting genomes evolve towards high entropy with non-coding regions serving as a low-level functional ecosystem, driven by entropy increase and energy decrease.

Contribution

It introduces a thermodynamic framework explaining genomic diversity and the role of non-coding sequences as part of an entropy-driven evolutionary process.

Findings

Genomes evolve toward higher entropy states.

Non-coding regions may have low-level functional roles.

Entropy increase correlates with natural selection dynamics.

Abstract

Eukaryote genomes contain excessively introns, inter-genic and other non-genic sequences that appear to have no vital functional role or phenotype manifestation. Their existence, a long-standing puzzle, is viewed from the principle of increasing entropy. According to thermodynamics of open systems, genomes evolve toward diversity by various mechanisms that increase, decrease and distribute genomic material in response to thermodynamic driving forces. Evolution results in an excessive genome, a high-entropy ecosystem of its own, where copious non-coding segments associate with low-level functions and conserved sequences code coordinated activities. The rate of entropy increase, equivalent to the rate of free energy decrease, is identified with the universal fitness criterion of natural selection that governs populations of genomic entities as well as other species.