{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,26]],"date-time":"2026-10-26T14:37:12Z","timestamp":1793025432351,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,25]],"date-time":"2026-09-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790294400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,25]],"date-time":"2026-09-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790294400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/doi.wiley.com\/10.1002\/tdm_license_1.1"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["FASEB BioAdvances"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,10]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Understanding the origins and determinants of biological complexity requires integrating theoretical and empirical perspectives across the tree of life. The present work discusses a recent theoretical proposal suggesting that the emergence of eukaryotes can be understood as an algorithmic phase transition governed by universal scaling laws in gene structure. The model identifies broad regularities including protein length stabilization and increased regulatory complexity. The predicted stabilization of protein length around 500 amino acids (~1500\u2009bp), coinciding with the prokaryote\u2010to\u2010eukaryote transition, represents a distinctive strength of the proposed framework. Drawing on evolutionary theory, this analysis highlights the importance of historical contingency, natural selection, and stochastic processes in shaping biological complexity. At the same time, biophysical, biochemical, and evolutionary mechanisms may contribute to constraining protein length, although these mechanisms do not currently explain the specific ~500\u2010amino\u2010acid threshold predicted by the phase\u2010transition model. More broadly, complexity emerges from the interplay between evolutionary dynamics, physical constraints, and system\u2010level organization. Factors such as epistasis, epigenetic regulation, population dynamics, gene\u2013environment interactions, and ecological dynamics contribute to shaping evolutionary trajectories and constraining possible outcomes. This perspective therefore proposes an integrative framework in which phenomenological scaling relationships, mechanistic constraints, evolutionary dynamics, and historical contingency are viewed as complementary levels of explanation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1096\/fba.2026-00213","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,25]],"date-time":"2026-09-25T15:00:20Z","timestamp":1790348420000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Beyond Algorithmic Phase Transitions: Integrating Evolutionary Contingency, Biophysical Constraints, and System\u2010Level Organization in Eukaryogenesis"],"prefix":"10.1096","volume":"8","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2336-702X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Antonio","family":"Salas","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Unidade de Xen\u00e9tica, Instituto de Ciencias Forenses, Facultade de Medicina, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, and Gen\u00e9tica de Poblaciones en Biomedicina (GenPoB) Research Group, Instituto de Investigaci\u00f3n Sanitaria (IDIS), Hospital Cl\u00ednico Universitario de Santiago (SERGAS)  Santiago de Compostela Galicia Spain"},{"name":"Centro de Investigaci\u00f3n Biom\u00e9dica en Red de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBER\u2010ES)  Madrid Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_10_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/464678a"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/464679a"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2422968122"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2505484122"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cub.2023.07.048"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_7_1","volume-title":"Patterns in Nature","author":"Stevens P. S.","year":"1974"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_8_1","first-page":"39","article-title":"Evolutionary and Newtonian Forces","volume":"1","author":"Hitchcock C.","year":"2014","journal-title":"Ergo"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_9_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tig.2016.02.002"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_10_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/nature11247"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_11_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/nature05874"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_12_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1616702114"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_13_1","volume-title":"Introduction to Ecological Genetics","author":"Van Straalen N. I.","year":"2006"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_14_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2404332122"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_15_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1002861"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_16_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cell.2008.05.042"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_17_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0378-1119(99)00228-0"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_18_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1514974112"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_19_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.ppat.1011522"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_20_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.212514799"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_21_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/gbe\/evx121"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_22_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.semcdb.2018.05.019"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_23_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/nrm2357"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_24_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1002669"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_25_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.febslet.2005.01.063"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_26_1","first-page":"129","article-title":"The Emergence of Modularity in Biological Systems","volume":"8","author":"Lorenz D. M.","year":"2011","journal-title":"Physics of Life Reviews"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_27_1","volume-title":"Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History","author":"Gould S. J.","year":"1989"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_28_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.aam5979"}],"container-title":["FASEB BioAdvances"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1096\/fba.2026-00213","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1096\/fba.2026-00213","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1096\/fba.2026-00213","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,26]],"date-time":"2026-10-26T14:14:19Z","timestamp":1793024059000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1096\/fba.2026-00213"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,25]]},"references-count":27,"journal-issue":{"issue":"10","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,10]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1096\/fba.2026-00213"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1096\/fba.2026-00213","archive":["Portico"],"relation":{},"ISSN":["2573-9832","2573-9832"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2573-9832","type":"print"},{"value":"2573-9832","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,25]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2026-06-30","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2026-09-17","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2026-09-25","order":3,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}],"article-number":"e70158"}}