Fresh Way to Classify Life and Life Processes
Tom Hendricks
The Catabolic Anabolic division, may be an important way to classify
life. By using a loose definition of catabolic - break down, and
anabolic - build up, we can find some important dichotomies that give
us some insight into how life works.
This should also introduce readers into a new way of looking at life,
as an anabolic, catabolic split.
Previous posts have shown that catabolic and anabolic pathways have
evolved separately.That suggests that everything is either more
catabolic or more anabolic.
That suggests that every cell, organism, species, or even biome, may
have more anabolic 'build up' than catabolic 'breakdown'
biochemistry*. The cell, organism, species, or biome has evolved to
better adapt to its environment by stressing either catabolic or
anabolic processes. Therefore we can compare groups and classify them
according to their preponderance of catabolic or anabolic processes.
Here are some examples . C = more catabolic like, A -= more anabolic
like.
C. Male, A. Female
C. Heterotroph A. Autotroph
C. Attacks Non-self A. Supports Self.
(*In the case of biomes, there may be more of both processes than
other biomes.}