Re: Rule for Reproduction Rate?

From: IRR (iotarhorho_at_REMOV3hotmail.com)
Date: 03/11/05 

Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 01:01:42 -0500 (EST)

<TomHendricks474@cs.com> wrote in message
news:d0e4v1$5ki$1@darwin.ediacara.org...
> Does anyone know of a rule for reproduction rate
> that says that replication speeds up with environmental
> temperatures?

Despite what you might try to extrapolate from enzyme kinetics, there is no
such 'rule' in a strict sense, only organism-specific local maxima along
temperature gradients mostly reflecting niche adaptation. In other words,
organisms (particularly prokaryotes) replicate fastest at the temperature
they're adapted to, and there's no global trend corresponding to
temperature. In fact, some of the most prolific hyperthermophiles yet
discovered (e.g. Lidy hot springs) are among the slowest growing organisms
known.
In these cases it seems replication may be slave to Prigogine -- selection
has 'invented' enzymes perfectly stable at 120 degrees C or pH 0, but
there's simply no way to beat the second law.

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