Metabolic constraints on the eukaryotic transition

Abstract

Mutualism, obligate mutualism, symbiosis, and the eukaryotic 'fusion' of Serial Endosymbiosis Theory represent progressively more rapid and less distorted real-time communication between biological structures instantiating information sources. Such progression in accurate information transmission requires, in turn, progressively greater channel capacity that, through the homology between information source uncertainty and free energy density, requires ever more energetic metabolism. The eukaryotic transition, according to this model, may have been entrained by an ecosystem resilience shift from anaerobic to aerobic metabolism.