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Emerging Themes in Identifying Rules of Life
Pages 9-18

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From page 9...
... KEY THEMES EMERGING FROM URoL ACTIVITIES Negative results can be as Possible rules and principles important as positive results in are beginning to emerge for the search for rules particular biological systems 1 2 3 4 Some rules may be translatable Effective communication across systems (e.g., law of across groups could help scalability) , and looking across elucidate more broadly multiple systems may help applicable rules of life illuminate underlying principles 9
From page 10...
... For example, research on bees shows that the trait of shivering to keep warm is expressed only in the bee colonies that live in colder environments. The purpose of the URoL: Epigenetics program is to enable innovative research and promote multidisciplinary education and workforce training in the broad area of epigenetics, with a focus on understanding the relationship between epigenetic mechanisms associated with environmental change, organismal phenotype, and resultant robustness and adaptability of organisms and populations.
From page 11...
... to regulate transcription in another 11
From page 12...
... In addition, the differentially methylated regions of the genome that are important for this phenomenon have been implicated in the propagation of responses to other stresses across generations. The evolutionary conservation of the epigenetic response to high CO2, combined with a conserved set of genes whose methylation state regulates the persistence of response to a range of stresses, suggests that this research may illuminate a more broadly applicable rule of life governing the establishment of phenotype in plants.
From page 13...
... in establishing the relationship between a host and its microbial symbionts, looking at the predictive potential of how a host's disease phenotype is related to its microbiome and metabolites, and studying how the diversity of microbiomes makes organisms more resilient. Participants considered how these themes might reflect an avenue for pursuing more generalizable rules.
From page 14...
... KEY THEMES FROM MICROBIOME AND MICROBIAL PROJECTS Researchers may consider rethinking the role of co-phylogeny and host switching Metabolomics may offer an avenue for predicting host disease and behavior The microbiome impacts host resilience to distrubance in the environments 14
From page 15...
... The three aquatic microbiomes studied by Vega drives dramatic alterations in the composition of the Thurber's group reside in zebrafish gut, coral, and microbiome and of host disease phenotype; whereas seagrass. These differ considerably in microbiome hosts with more diverse microbiomes are more resilient complexity, ranging from a single non-pathogenic and their microbiomes less altered by disturbance.
From page 16...
... The purpose of the URoL: Synthetic Cells program is to stimulate innovative and transformative research proposals that leverage developments in biophysics, chemistry, computer science, geosciences, materials science, soft condensed matter, and biology with engineering and social sciences to make substantial progress toward producing a synthetic cell. Full proposals included multidisciplinary teams with at least one bioethics researcher, an educational plan to train the students and technicians involved in the project, and generalized instruction in synthetic cell technology and applications for graduate and undergraduate students and for the lay public.
From page 17...
... KEY THEMES FROM SYNTHETIC CELLS PROJECTS The ratios of membrane channels may be more important in propagating spikes than the absolute number of channels Large-scale mechanical behaviors may be more important than non-mechanical behaviors for healing physical damage Flexibility of cellular machinery may offer opportunities to create new kinds of materials Scaling laws apply across the tree of life Creation of synthetic cells without phospholipids is possible RNA folding is crucial to prevent RNA from being degraded in the cell 17
From page 18...
... Liu uses a HeLa-based, without a lot of complicated cellular machinery, said cell-free expression system to produce four types of Liu. Evidence suggests that the endoplasmic reticulum– channel proteins (ligand-gated channel and voltage- derived microsomes found in HeLa cell lysate are gated sodium, potassium, and calcium channels)


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