Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
proposed by Klonowski and Klonowska (1982). This idea may be alternatively
expressed as follows:
The 2-D structures of proteins are deterministic and predictable based on their amino acid
sequences alone which are largely time-independent, but their 3-D structures are
non-deterministic and unpredictable because i) proteins are sensitive to the space-and
time-dependent microenvironmental conditions under which they fold, and ii) the informa-
tion concerning their environment is largely lost to the past. (6.1)
For the convenience of discussion, we may refer to Statement 6.1 as the postulate
of the
unpredictability of the 3-D protein folds
(U3PF)
,
which is here suggested to
be analogous to the
insolvability of the fifth-order polynomial equations
(I5PE) in
mathematics. The main point of constructing Table
6.1
(see below) is to suggest
that, just as the centuries-long attempt to solve the fifth-order polynomial equation
(5PE) in mathematics had been instrumental in establishing the
group theory
, so the
decades-long effort on the part of biologists and biophysicists to solve the 3-D
protein folds (3PF) problem may lead to the development of a novel theory of life,
and
4.9
). According to this theory, all self-organizing processes in living systems
(including protein folding) are driven by gnergons, discrete units of gnergy defined
as the complementary union of information (gn-) and energy (
ergy). We can
express these ideas more simply in terms of the following two formal statements:
I5PE ----
>
Group Theory
(6.2)
U3PF
¼¼>
GnergonTheory
(6.3)
where the arrow “X ----
”
reads “X leads to Y via fuzzy logic”. In other words, the
group theory
was arrived at
based on
crisp logic
, whereas the
gnergon theory
may involve uncertainties and
The concept of gnergons may provide a theoretical framework for
the principle
of rule-governed creativity
(Sect.
6.1.4
), the
rule-governedness
reflecting the
energy
principle and the
creativity
reflecting the
information
that encodes the
consequences of the historical contingencies associated with biological evolution.
Rule-governedness is predictable and deterministic while
creativity
is unpredict-
able and nondeterministic. Thus, it may be concluded that the principle of
rule-governed creativity
embodies the principle of the complementarity between
determinism
and
nondeterminism
on the one hand and the
predictability
and
unpredictability
(
or creativity
) on the other. Alternatively, we may refer to rule-
governed creativity as “freedom within constraints.”
The possible analogy between the field of algebraic equations in mathematics
and that of protein folding in biology is summarized in Table
6.1
.
One possible reason why the protein structures and functions cannot be predicted
based on their amino acid sequence data alone may be because biological systems in
general (of which proteins are parts) obey the principle of complementarity between
>
Y” reads “X leads to Y via crisp logic” and “
¼¼>
