Calculations of exergy for organisms

This paper presents several indirect methods to determine β-values. It is shown that the β-values are well correlated to the age of the organisms (mya), to the number of cell types, to the minimum DNA-content, to the ratio non-coding genes versus total number of genes [Mattick, J.S., 2003. Challenging the dogma: the hidden layer of non-protein-coding RNAs in complex organisms. Bioassays 25, 930-939.] and to the β-values, determined by Fonseca et al. on basis of the total amount of DNA. Indirect determinations were therefore able to expand and improve the previous list of β-values. The previous list had only 19 values, while the list based on the whole-genome project has 16 β-values. The expanded list presented in this paper contains 56 β-values. To reduce the uncertainty of the values, although assuming an apparent loss of discriminating power, it was decided to lump some organisms together in one group when it was know from the evolutionary tree that the organisms were closely related. It implies that the averages of β-values determined by different methods were applied, which should give a higher certainty. The result is a list with 45 β-values, that hopefully will improve the use of β-values to calculate the exergy for assessment of ecosystem health and for the development of structurally dynamic models.