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arXiv · 2012.00072

Principles of seed banks: complexity emerging from dormancy

Jay T. Lennon·Frank den Hollander·Maite Wilke-Berenguer·Jochen Blath
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Abstract

Across the tree of life, populations have evolved the capacity to contend with suboptimal conditions by engaging in dormancy, whereby individuals enter a reversible state of reduced metabolic activity. The resulting seed banks are complex, storing information and imparting memory that gives rise to multi-scale structures and networks spanning collections of cells to entire ecosystems. We outline the fundamental attributes and emergent phenomena associated with dormancy and seed banks, with the vision for a unifying and mathematically based framework that can address problems in the life sciences, ranging from global change to cancer biology.

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Jay T. Lennon, Frank den Hollander, Maite Wilke-Berenguer, Jochen Blath. 2020-11-30. Principles of seed banks: complexity emerging from dormancy. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24733-1

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