The energetic costs of cellular complexity in evolution.

ABSTRACT

The evolutionary history of cells has been marked by drastic increases in complexity. Some hypothesize that such cellular complexification requires a massive energy flux as the origin of new features is hypothetically more energetically costly than their evolutionary maintenance. However, it remains unclear how increases in cellular complexity demand more energy. I propose that the early evolution of new genes with weak functions imposes higher energetic costs by overexpression before their functions are evolutionarily refined. In the long term, the accumulation of new genes deviates resources away from growth and reproduction. Accrued cellular complexity further requires additional infrastructure for its maintenance. Altogether, this suggests that larger and more complex cells are defined by increased survival but lower reproductive capacity.