Origin of the Directed Movement of Protocells in the Early Stages of the Evolution of Life

Abstract

The origin of the directed motion of protocells during the early stages of evolution was discussed. The expenditures for movement, space orientation, and reception of information about the environment were taken into consideration, and it was shown that directed movement is evolutionarily advantageous in the following cases: when opposite gradients of different resources (for example, matter and energy) are great enough and when there is a rapid change in environmental parameters. It was also shown that the advantage of directed movement strategies depends greatly on how information about the environment is obtained by a protocell. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.