Integrative emergence in contrast to separating modularity in plant biology: views on systems biology with information, signals and memory at scalar levels from molecules to the biosphere

Abstract

AbstractModularity is reductionism and materialism, where modules are considered as building blocks per se. By contrast self-organization of modules in living organisms, like plants, generates the emergence of integrated systems with new properties not predicted by the properties of the modules. This can occur at the hierarchy of a series of scalar levels, where emergent systems become modules for emergence of new systems on the next higher scalar level akin to a hierarchy of networks from molecules, cells and individuals up to the levels of ecosystems, biomes and the entire biosphere or Gaia. The systems on these levels are holobiont-like systems, i.e., central organisms in interaction with all their associated organisms as a unit for selection in evolution. Systems biology, now a modern aspect of plant biology, has started with the advancement of whole-plant physiology in the early 1970s unraveling the roles of signaling for integration and cooperation of parts or modules in the performance of entire plants. Fixation of information in plant memory and emergence from such storage rules the timing of events of emergence. With the enthusiasm promoted by the creative self-organization of modules into the emergence of exciting new systems, biology diverts from the reductionism and materialism of bare modularity. Understanding emergence helps to advance on the rocky paths towards understanding the complexity of life.