Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
a
simple enzyme
and an
enzyme complex
besides their physical sizes, indirectly
supporting the conclusion drawn in Table
4.7,
where the difference between
enzymes and enzyme complexes was compared to the difference between atoms
and quantum dots.
In addition, the explanations suggested here are consistent with the general
hypothesis proposed in (Ji and Zinovyev 2007b; Ji 2007a) that
life is a critical
phenomenon
, wherein long-range interactions among microscopic entities or
particles lead to macroscopic behaviors of organisms (see also Sect.
16.7
). If this
hypothesis is correct, the numerical values of
w
ranging from 1 to 10 revealed in
Fig.
11.9
may be analogous to the variable numerical values for the critical
exponents measured in condensed matter physics which vary from 0.1 to about 5
(Domb 1996; Landau and Lifshitz 1990).
The DNA-book analogy described in Table
11.5
can be expanded by replacing
“topic” with “survival manual.” That is, DNA can be more accurately viewed as the
molecular record
of all the instructions found useful for cell survival throughout
the evolutionary history of a lineage. In other words, DNA can be viewed as
survival programs
or
algorithms
written in atoms and hence may be referred to
as the “atomic survival programs (ASP)” or “atomic survival algorithms (ASA).”
The maximum number of ASPs stored in the human genome may be estimated as
shown in Eqs.
11.9
and
11.10
, if we can assume that (a) protein-coding genes
(whose number will be denoted as
a
, which is about 30,000, in the human genome)
are equivalent to words in human language; (b) the average number of words,
b
,ina
cell-linguistic sentence is about 10; and (c) the average number, c, of cell linguistic
sentences in an ASP is 5.
c log a
b
Log (Maximum Number of ASPs)
¼
10
10
4
¼
5 log (3
Þ
¼
5
40 log 3
¼
95
:
42
(11.9)
10
95
:
42
Maximum Number of ASPs
¼
(11.10)
The information, I, required to retrieve one of these ASPs from the nucleus may
be estimated as in Eq.
11.11
:
log
2
10
95
:
42
I
¼
=
log
10
10
95
:
42
¼
ð
log
10
2
Þ
¼
ð Þ=
95
:
42
0
:
303
¼
315 bits
(11.11)
Equation
11.11
indicates that the cell will need 315 bits of information to be
able to select one ASP out of all possible ASPs stored in DNA. With this informa-
tion the cell will be able to make 315 binary choices or decisions. In order for
