Roadmap on biology in time varying environments

Arvind Murugan, Kabir Husain, Michael J. Rust, Chelsea Hepler, Joseph Bass, Julian M.J. Pietsch, Peter S. Swain, Siddhartha G. Jena, Jared E. Toettcher, Arup K. Chakraborty, Kayla G. Sprenger, T. Mora, A. M. Walczak, O. Rivoire, Shenshen Wang, Kevin B. Wood, Antun Skanata, Edo Kussell, Rama Ranganathan, Hong Yan ShihNigel Goldenfeld

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Biological organisms experience constantly changing environments, from sudden changes in physiology brought about by feeding, to the regular rising and setting of the Sun, to ecological changes over evolutionary timescales. Living organisms have evolved to thrive in this changing world but the general principles by which organisms shape and are shaped by time varying environments remain elusive. Our understanding is particularly poor in the intermediate regime with no separation of timescales, where the environment changes on the same timescale as the physiological or evolutionary response. Experiments to systematically characterize the response to dynamic environments are challenging since such environments are inherently high dimensional. This roadmap deals with the unique role played by time varying environments in biological phenomena across scales, from physiology to evolution, seeking to emphasize the commonalities and the challenges faced in this emerging area of research.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number041502
JournalPhysical Biology
Volume18
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2021

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biophysics
  • Structural Biology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Cell Biology

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