Shifts in metabolic scaling, production, and efficiency across major evolutionary transitions of life

The diversification of life involved enormous increases in size and complexity. The evolutionary transitions from prokaryotes to unicellular eukaryotes to metazoans were accompanied by major innovations in metabolic design. Here we show that the scalings of metabolic rate, population growth rate, an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2010-07, Vol.107 (29), p.12941-12945
Main Authors: DeLong, John P., Okie, Jordan G., Moses, Melanie E., Sibly, Richard M., Brown, James H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Basal Metabolism
Biodiversity
Biological Evolution
Biological Sciences
Biomass production
Body size
Body Weight
Cell Size
Cellular metabolism
Datasets
Energy metabolism
Eukaryotes
Evolution
Genome - genetics
Metabolism
Models, Biological
Phylogeny
Production efficiency
Prokaryotes
Prokaryotic cells
Prokaryotic Cells - metabolism
Species Specificity
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Summary:The diversification of life involved enormous increases in size and complexity. The evolutionary transitions from prokaryotes to unicellular eukaryotes to metazoans were accompanied by major innovations in metabolic design. Here we show that the scalings of metabolic rate, population growth rate, and production efficiency with body size have changed across the evolutionary transitions. Metabolic rate scales with body mass superlinearly in prokaryotes, linearly in protists, and sublinearly in metazoans, so Kleiber's 3/4 power scaling law does not apply universally across organisms. The scaling of maximum population growth rate shifts from positive in prokaryotes to negative in protists and metazoans, and the efficiency of production declines across these groups. Major changes in metabolic processes duringthe early evolutionoflife overcameexisting constraints, exploited new opportunities, and imposed new constraints.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1007783107