Constructing universal phenomenology for biological cellular systems: an idiosyncratic review on evolutionary dimensional reduction

Abstract

Abstract The possibility of establishing a macroscopic phenomenological theory for biological systems, akin to the well-established framework of thermodynamics, is briefly reviewed. We introduce the concept of an evolutionary fluctuation–response relationship, which highlights the tight correlation between the variance in phenotypic traits caused by genetic mutations and by internal noise. We provide a distribution theory that allows us to derive these relationships, which suggests that the changes in traits resulting from adaptation and evolution are considerably constrained within a lower-dimensional space. We explore the reasons behind this dimensional reduction, focusing on the constraints posed by the requirements for steady growth and robustness achieved through the evolutionary process. We draw support from recent laboratory and numerical experiments to substantiate our claims. The universality of evolutionary dimensional reduction is presented and potential theoretical formulations for it are discussed. We conclude by briefly considering the prospects of establishing a macroscopic framework that characterizes biological robustness and irreversibility in cell differentiation, as well as an ideal cell model.