Metabolic constraints on the evolution of genetic codes: Did multiple 'preaerobic' ecosystem transitions entrain richer dialects via Serial Endosymbiosis?

Abstract

A mathematical model based on Tlusty's topological deconstruction suggests that multiple punctuated ecosystem shifts in available metabolic free energy, broadly akin to the 'aerobic' transition, enabled a punctuated sequence of increasingly complex genetic codes and protein translators under mechanisms similar to the Serial Endosymbiosis effecting the Eukaryotic transition. These evolved until the ancestor to the present narrow spectrum of nearly maximally robust codes became locked-in by path dependence.