Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
As indicated in Rows 4 and 5 in Table
8.1
, there are two types of dissipative
structures operating in the living cell -
conformons
and
IDSs
. Any material systems
that are endowed with the capacity to dissipate free energy to organize itself in
defined,
dissipatons
are synonymous with
gnergons
, the discrete units of gnergy,
and the postulated universal driving force for all self-organization in the Universe
compared to the difference between
energy
and
force
in Newtonian mechanics
(see Eq.
8.6
), the former pair (i.e., gnergons-dissipatons) referring to organized
motions and the latter pair (i.e., energy-force) referring to any motions, whether
organized or not. Thus, conformons and IDSs are examples of
dissipatons
.
Conformons are confined within biopolymers and IDSs propagate in space outside
biopolymers. Another way to distinguish between
gnergons
and
dissipatons
is to
view the former as the cause and the latter as consequences, that is,
Gnergons cause dissipatons.
(8.4)
To differentiate between
conformons
and
IDSs
, the two kinds of
dissipatons
active
in the living cell, the terms “mechanical dissipatons” (denoted as
m-dissipatons
)and
“concentration dissipatons” (denoted as
c-dissipatons
) have been introduced in
Table
8.2
(see the second row), which compares the characteristics of these two
types of dissipatons.
8.1 The Definition and Historical Background
Cells are organized systems of biopolymers (proteins, RNA, DNA) and small
molecules and ions. Some of these biopolymers (e.g., kinesin, dynein, myosin)
have enzymic activity and act as molecular motors (Alberts 1998) moving
teleonomically, driven by exergonic chemical reactions such as ATP hydrolysis
that they catalyze. In order for molecular motors to move in goal-directed manner,
they must be able to produce requisite conformons from either substrate binding or
the chemical reactions they catalyze (Ji 1974b, 2000, 2004a). Conformons can
provide the necessary and sufficient conditions for goal-directed motions of molec-
ular machines because conformons carry both energy (to generate force) and
genetic information (to control the direction of motions). The energy stored in
enzymes as conformational or mechanical strains can generate forces because
energy and force are quantitatively related to each other through the Second Law
of Newtonian mechanics and the definition of energy as the ability to do work.
According to the Second Law of mechanics, force (
F
) equals mass (
m
) times
acceleration (
a
):
F ¼
m
a
(8.5)
