Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 10.6 The evolution of the theoretical model of the living cell, 1954-2011
Cell models
Watson (1954)
Ji (1985a, b)
Ji (2012)
1. Components
(1) DNA, (2) RNA,
and (3) proteins
(1), (2), (3), (4) ion
gradients, and (5)
mechanical stress
gradients
(1), (2), (3), (4), (5)
and (6)
Pathway-specific
concentration
waves as sounds
of cell language
(Sect.
12.8
)
2. New theoretical
concepts
DNA double-helix
(1)
Conformons
(2)
and
dissipative
structures
(3)
Renormalizable
networks
(4)
3. Experimental
data
(1) Chargaff's rules of
base pairing, (2) role
of RNA in protein
synthesis, and (3)
X-ray structure of
DNA
(1) Mechanically
flexible proteins,
(2) DNA supercoils,
and (3) intracellular
Ca
++
ion gradients
(1) Signal transduction
pathways, (2) DNA
microarray data,
and (3)
developmental
biology
4. Nodes
3
8
?
5. Edges
4
20
?
period of a half century, the number of new concepts underlying the models did not
increase proportionately. It only increased from 1 to 3 to 4 (see Row 2). This may
indicate that the eight-dimensional
supernetwork
model of the cell shown in
Fig.
10.8c
contains most, if not all, of the fundamental concepts needed to model
the living cell.
