Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Information Cycle and Biological Information Management

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Cellular-Molecular Mechanisms in Epigenetic Evolutionary Biology

  • 657 Accesses

Abstract

The self-referential appraisal of information characterizes cells of all types whether they are prokaryotic bacteria or individual eukaryotic cells (Shapiro 2011; Trewavas and Baluška 2011; Miller 2013). Plainly then, the manner in which cellular organisms retrieve, assess, and deploy information to maintain homeostasis or to communicate with other organisms unites the organizational structure that exists among all living organisms (Trewavas and Baluška 2011; Gamow 1955). It follows that these are linked and complex actions which require systematic ordering. Plainly then, any such ordering function must be under the control of a form of systematic information management. Every aspect of cellular life is directed toward information assessment and cell–cell communications to support homeostatic equipoise. It can be asserted that the exquisite coordination that cells exhibit in these tasks requires the presence of an information management apparatus (Miller 2017; Miller et al. 2019).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adami C (2016) What is information? Philos Trans R Soc A 13:374

    Google Scholar 

  • Adolphs J, Renger T (2006) How proteins trigger excitation energy transfer in the FMO complex of green sulfur bacteria. Biophys J 91:2778–2797

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Agnati LF, Baluška F, Barlow PW, Guidolin D (2009) Mosaic, self-similarity logic and biological attraction principles: three explanatory instruments in biology. Commun Integr Biol 2:552–563

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bai C, Leeson M, Higgins MD, Lu Y (2016) Throughput and energy efficiency-based packet size optimisation of ARQ protocols in bacterial quorum communications. Trans Emerg Telecomm Technol 27:1128–1143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ben-Jacob E (2009) Learning from bacteria about natural information processing. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1178:78–90

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ben-Jacob E, Levine H (2006) Self-engineering capabilities of bacteria. J R Soc Interface 3:197–214

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Boyle EA, Li YI, Pritchard JK (2017) An expanded view of complex traits: from polygenic to omnigenic. Cell 169(7):1177–1186

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahlberg PD, Norris GJ, Wang C, Viswanathan S, Singh VP, Engel GS (2015) Communication: coherences observed in vivo in photosynthetic bacteria using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy. J Chem Phys 143:101101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Loof A (2015a) How to deduce and teach the logical and unambiguous answer, namely L = ∑C, to “What is Life?” using the principles of communication? Commun Integr Biol 8:1–11

    Google Scholar 

  • De Loof A (2015b) From Darwin’s on the origin of species by means of natural selection to the evolution of life with communication activity as its very essence and driving force (= mega-evolution). Funct Genomics 3:153–187

    Google Scholar 

  • Deacon TW (2011) Incomplete nature: how mind emerged from matter. WW Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ezkurdia I, Juan D, Rodriguez JM, Frankish A, Diekhans M, Harrow J, Vazquez J, Valencia A, Tress ML (2014) Multiple evidence strands suggest that there may be as few as 19,000 human protein-coding genes. Hum Mol Genet 23:5866–5878

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Farnsworth KD, Nelson J, Gershenson C (2013) Living is information processing: from molecules to global systems. Acta Biotheor 61:203–222

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ford BJ (2004) Are cells ingenious? Microscope 52:135–144

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ford BJ (2009) On intelligence in cells: the case for whole cell biology. Interdiscip Sci Rev 34:350–365

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford BJ (2017) Cellular intelligence: microphenomenology and the realities of being. Prog Biophys Mol Biol 131:273–287

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabor D (1946) Theory of communication. Part 1: the analysis of information. J Inst Electr Eng-Part III 93:429–441

    Google Scholar 

  • Gamow G (1955) Information transfer in the living cell. Sci Am 193:70–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gregory TR (2005) Genome size evolution in animals. In The Evolution of the Genome. Elsevier: San Diego. pp. 3–87

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall WP (2005) Biological nature of knowledge in the learning organisation. Learn Organ: Intern J 12:169–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hellingwerf KJ (2005) Bacterial observations: a rudimentary form of intelligence? Trends Microbiol 13:152–158

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Igamberdiev AU, Shklovskiy-Kordi NE (2017) The quantum basis of spatiotemporality in perception and consciousness. Prog Biophys Mol Biol 130:15–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingber DE (2003) Mechanosensation through integrins: cells act locally but think globally. Proc Natl Acad Sci 100:1472–1474

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Koonin EV (2016) The meaning of biological information. Philos Trans R Soc A 374:20150065

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marijuán PC, Navarro J, del Moral R (2015) How the living is in the world: an inquiry into the informational choreographies of life. Prog Biophys Mol Biol 31:469–480

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McFall-Ngai M, Hadfield MG, Bosch TC, Carey HV, Domazet-Lošo T, Douglas AE, Dubilier N, Eberl G, Fukami T, Gilbert SF, Hentschel U (2013) Animals in a bacterial world, a new imperative for the life sciences. Proc Natl Acad Sci 110:3229–3236

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Miller WB (2013) The microcosm within: evolution and extinction in the hologenome. Universal Publishers, Boca Raton

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller WB (2016a) Cognition, information fields and hologenomic entanglement: evolution in light and shadow. Biology (Basel) 5(2):21

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Miller WB (2016b) The eukaryotic microbiome: origins and implications for fetal and neonatal life. Front Pediatr 4:96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller WB (2017) Biological information systems: evolution as cognition-based information management. Prog Biophys Mol Biol 134:1–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller WB Jr, Torday JS (2018) Four domains: the fundamental unicell and Post-Darwinian cognition-based evolution. Prog Biophys Mol Biol 140:49–73

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller WB Jr, Torday JS, Baluška F (2019) Biological evolution as defense of ‘self’. Prog Biophys Mol Biol 142:54–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller WB, Torday JS (2017) A systematic approach to cancer: evolution beyond selection. Clin Transl Med 3:2

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller WB, Torday JS, Baluska F (2018) Biological evolution as the defense of self. Prog Biophys Mol Biol 142:54–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Pookotil R (2013) B.E.E.M biological emergence-based evolutionary mechanism. Fossil Fish Publishing, Cornwall

    Google Scholar 

  • Santiana M, Ghosh S, Ho BA, Rajasekaran V, Du W-L, Mutsafi Y, De Jésus-Diaz DA, Sosnovtsev SV, Levenson EA, Parra GI, Takvorian PM, Cali A, Bleck C, Vlasova AN, Saif LS, Patton JT, Lopalco P, Corcelli A, Green KY, Altan-Bonnet N (2018) Vesicle-cloaked virus clusters are optimal units for inter-organismal viral transmission. Cell Host Microbe 24:208–220

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shapiro JA (2011) Evolution: a view from the 21st century. FT Press, Upper Saddle River

    Google Scholar 

  • Szostak JW (2003) Functional information: molecular messages. Nature 423:689

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Torday JS, Miller WB Jr (2016a) The unicellular state as a point source in a quantum biological system. Biology (Basel) 5(2):25

    Google Scholar 

  • Torday JS, Miller WB Jr (2016b) Biologic relativity: who is the observer and what is observed? Prog Biophys Mol Biol 121:29–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torday JS, Miller WB Jr (2016c) Life is determined by its environment. Int J Astrobiol 15:345–350

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torday JS, Miller WB Jr (2016d) Phenotype as agent for epigenetic inheritance. Biology (Basel) 5(3):30

    Google Scholar 

  • Torday JS, Miller WB Jr (2017) The resolution of ambiguity as the basis for life: a cellular bridge between Western reductionism and Eastern holism. Prog Biophys Mol Biol 131:288–297

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Torday JS, Rehan VK (2012) Evolutionary biology, cell-cell communication and complex disease. Wiley, Hoboken

    Google Scholar 

  • Trewavas AJ, Baluška F (2011) The ubiquity of consciousness. EMBO Rep 12:1221–1225

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Venter JC et al. (2001) The sequence of the human genome. Science 291, 1304–1351

    Google Scholar 

  • Xavier RS, Omar N, de Castro LN (2011) Bacterial colony: Information processing and computational behavior. In Nature and biologically inspired computing (NaBIC), 2011 Third World Congress, pp. 439–443

    Google Scholar 

  • Yufik YM, Friston K (2016) Life and understanding: the origins of “understanding” in self-organizing nervous systems. Front Syst Neurosci 10:98

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deptartment of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Harbor–UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA

    John Torday

  2. Physician/Independent researcher, Banner Health/J.C.Lincoln Health Systems, Paradise Valley, AZ, USA

    William Miller Jr.

Authors
  1. John Torday
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. William Miller Jr.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Torday, J., Miller Jr., W. (2020). The Information Cycle and Biological Information Management. In: Cellular-Molecular Mechanisms in Epigenetic Evolutionary Biology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38133-2_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation