Abstract:
Both metabolism and behavior play a key role in biological theory and artificial life modelling. Yet, despite their centrality there has been very little exploration of the relationship between these concepts and almost no exploration of how the interaction between the two could impact on evolution or instantiate alternative mechanisms for evolutionary processes. We present a simulation model of bacteria capable of metabolism-based chemotaxis: a minimal metabolic system capable of modulating behavior by influencing the probability of flagellar rotation (like in E. coli chemotaxis). We perform two illustrative experiments. In the first, the incorporation of a chemical compound into metabolism qualitatively improves the chemotactic strategy. In the second, an encounter with a specific chemical compound leads to a reaction that opens up a new metabolic pathway while automatically regulating chemotaxis towards that same compound. Both experiments illustrate the adaptive potential of metabolism-based behavior and can be used to explore the idea of “Behavioral Metabolution,” a co-evolutionary synergy between behavior and metabolism. We abstract some principles of behavioral metabolution and discuss its application to early prebiotic evolution.
