Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
quite different nature: In fact the causal action of the DNA is the transmission
of a specific order or form. DNA 'selects' certain specific sequences for the
different amino acids building up proteins. Therefore, the causal role of DNA
is to instruct the synthesis of otherwise highly improbable proteins.
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On the
other hand, the almost inert character of DNA molecules and the dynamical
decoupling from the metabolic processes permit to see the changes in the DNA
strings as practically independent of the metabolic organization (as if they were
'compositional' changes). This dynamical decoupling along with its causal role
expresses the informational nature of the genetic material in living organization.
Thus, in this new form of organization, causal action is structured in different
levels: within the dynamics of the metabolic process and between the dynami-
cally decoupled operational levels of genes and proteins.
Ultimately, this decoupling of the genetic material from the metabolic dynam-
ics is the expression of the radical insertion of organisms, as autonomous systems,
into a historical-collective (meta)system, where the 'slow' processes of creation
and modification of informational patterns take place and where an additional
circular relation of cause and effect is established between individual organi-
zations and the eco-evolutionary global dimension. The origin of information
(of genetic information) takes place precisely when the link between both dimen-
sions is articulated. As a consequence, the appearance of information opens a
new scenario incorporating continuously new causal relations in the individual
organization. Each time a new genetic component, linked to the production of a
new functional protein, enters into the organization of a cell, and if this modifi-
cation turns out to be viable and advantageous for that cell, a new causal link
becomes stabilized.
Thus, in functional terms, the causal action of information allows, on the
one hand, the robustness of the processes associated with self-maintenance in
the early living systems and, on the other, the increase in the complexity of
living systems. The informational components, shaped through a collective and
historical process, re-arrange material subsets of structures so that highly orga-
nized systems are generated and preserved. One important feature of this new
organization is that the specification for the maintenance of the system is hierar-
chically organized: an important part of these specifications is stored/recorded in
the informational sequences of the genetic components. This allows the robust
maintenance of much more complex networks (which in turn will support more
specifications in their connectivity). So, the informational organization will allow
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However, the final result of the DNA - the function of the proteins - is also due to the very materiality
of the protein. In fact, one of the key aspects of this process is an 'opportunistic' use of the self-assembling
properties of the material properties of components. Protein folding is largely a tacit process where the explicit
information contained in the linear sequence is only a short part of the causes that govern the process of
folding, and therefore the expression of its function. Thus, the specific materiality of the protein is crucial.
