TY - JOUR
T1 - Similarities in the evolution of plants and cars
AU - Hartzell, Samantha
AU - Bartlett, Mark
AU - Yin, Jun
AU - Porporato, Amilcare Michele M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Hartzell et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2018/6
Y1 - 2018/6
N2 - While one system is animate and the other inanimate, both plants and cars are powered by a highly successful process which has evolved in a changing environment. Each process (the photosynthetic pathway and the car engine, respectively) originated from a basic scheme and evolved greater efficiency by adding components to the existing structure, which has remained largely unchanged. Here we present a comparative analysis of two variants on the original C3 photosynthetic pathway (C4 and CAM) and two variants on the internal combustion engine (the turbocharger and the hybrid electric vehicle). We compare the timeline of evolution, the interaction between system components, and the effects of environmental conditions on both systems. This analysis reveals striking similarities in the development of these processes, providing insight as to how complex systems—both natural and built—evolve and adapt to changing environmental conditions in a modular fashion.
AB - While one system is animate and the other inanimate, both plants and cars are powered by a highly successful process which has evolved in a changing environment. Each process (the photosynthetic pathway and the car engine, respectively) originated from a basic scheme and evolved greater efficiency by adding components to the existing structure, which has remained largely unchanged. Here we present a comparative analysis of two variants on the original C3 photosynthetic pathway (C4 and CAM) and two variants on the internal combustion engine (the turbocharger and the hybrid electric vehicle). We compare the timeline of evolution, the interaction between system components, and the effects of environmental conditions on both systems. This analysis reveals striking similarities in the development of these processes, providing insight as to how complex systems—both natural and built—evolve and adapt to changing environmental conditions in a modular fashion.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0198044
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0198044
M3 - Article
C2 - 29958287
AN - SCOPUS:85049242608
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 13
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 6
M1 - e0198044
ER -