|
Hi Tim,
Your question was:
2)
Would you say that having replication in
an (M,R)-system allows for the "reproduction is included within metabolism/repair
in an (M,R)-System" statement, but that the two (replication,
reproduction) are distinct functions? That is how I always understood
it.
I take it
you mean "replication" as mitosis or cell division within a multicellular
organism (in order to be considered part of repair)? The reason I ask is because
replication and mitosis can also mean a form of asexual reproduction in
single-celled organisms as well as referring to reproductive behavior in
come multicellular organisms (such as parthenogenesis in certain insect
species or production of new plants from a piece of a plant, as well as
referring to the way viruses reproduce, making copies of themselves using
the soma of host cells).
It's clear
that the two functions (repair and reproduction) are related, but you're
right that reproduction is distinct from repair and certainly not always a
given. Mules were the example my father always used to show that an organism
need not be capable of reproducing its species in order to be alive.
Repair, on the other hand, is one of the requirements of life, along with
metabolism. A mule's body repairs itself, but it cannot
reproduce.
Judith
|