Discere hypothesis – a potential supplement to cell theory

For reasons that remain unclear, despite roughly 4 billion years of cellular evolution, cell theory has only three well-accepted postulates1. I previously proposed the gasocrine, circumiacentium, informatio, and conscientia hypotheses, which state that all cells require gasocrine signaling2, are limited by their environment3, pass information4, and require consciousness5, respectively. I also proposed cellular consciousness is the sum of its endogenous and environmental signaling or simply sum of its signaling activities5. But if a cell can be considered conscious, how does it know it is conscious if it has not learned about itself or its environment? Therefore, I propose all cells learn. This hypothesis can be falsified by identifying a cell that is unable to learn or lacks cellular processes that constitute a form of molecular memory and learning6-9. Therefore, this hypothesis is a potential supplement to cell theory. REFERENCES Hyllner J, Mason C, Wilmut I. Cells: from Robert Hooke to cell therapy—a 350 year journey. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2015; 370:20150320. Anbalagan S. Gasocrine hypothesis - a potential supplement to cell theory. Acta Biochim Pol 2025; 72:15465. Anbalagan S. Circumiacentium hypothesis - a potential supplement to cell theory. Zenodo 2026. Anbalagan S. Informatio hypothesis - a potential supplement to cell theory. Zenodo 2026. Anbalagan S. Conscientia hypotheses - potential supplements to cell theory. Zenodo 2026. Gelber B. Investigations of the behavior of Paramecium aurelia. I. Modification of behavior after training with reinforcement. J Comp Physiol Psychol. 1952; 45(1):58-65. Morimoto BH & Koshland Jr DE. Short-term and long-term memory in single cells. FASEB J. 1991; 5(7):2061-7. Burrill DR. & Silver PA. Making cellular memories. Cell 2010; 140(1):13-8. Gershman SJ, Balbi PE, Gallistel CR, Gunawardena J. Reconsidering the evidence for learning in single cells. Elife 2021; 4:10:e61907.