PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Eugene V. Koonin
AU  - Yuri I. Wolf
AU  - Mikhail I. Katsnelson
TI  - Inevitability of the emergence and persistence of genetic parasites caused by thermodynamic instability of parasite-free states
AID  - 10.1101/182410
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 182410
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/30/182410.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/30/182410.full
AB  - Genetic parasites, including viruses and mobile genetic elements, are ubiquitous among cellular life forms, and moreover, are the most abundant biological entities on earth that harbor the bulk of the genetic diversity. Here we examine simple thought experiments to demonstrate that both the emergence of parasites in simple replicator systems and their persistence in evolving life forms are inevitable because the putative parasite-free states are thermodynamically unstable.