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Fig. 11.22 A theoretical model of the communication system responsible for generating
biological information (Ji 1990, 2000). The message source ¼ biological evolution; the
channel ¼ conformons and IDSs (intracellular dissipative structures such as ion gradients); the
receiver ¼ the cell. Conformons are the packets of mechanical energy or conformational strains
entrapped in local sites within biopolymers, thus carrying free energy and genetic information that
are both necessary and sufficient to drive all goal-directed molecular processes inside the cell (Ji
1974a, b, 2000) (Sect. 8.1 ) . The key postulate underlying the model is that the information
generated in Step 1 is utilized to produce n conformons in an enzyme, each of which being capable
of driving one elementary step in enzymic catalysis, Step 3, leading to the production of IDSs,
Intracellular Dissipative Structures (Chap. 9 ), which are postulated to be the immediate causes (or
driving forces) for all cell functions
It was postulated in Ji (1985a, b) that the genetic information of an enzyme is not
homogeneously distributed within the enzyme but heterogeneously distributed as a
part of conformons , defined as the discrete units of mechanical energy and genetic
information (i.e., the information that is transmitted from one cell generation to the
next). Conformons are postulated to be responsible for all goal-directed molecular
motions (e.g., chromosome remodeling) and processes (e.g., enzymic catalysis,
active transport, muscle contraction) in the cell (Chap. 8 ). Based on a protein-
centered model of biological evolution schematized in Fig. 11.22 , it was possible
to derive Eq. 11.19 that can be used to estimate the number of amino acid
residues constituting one conformon within an enzyme (Ji 1990, pp. 198-200)
(see Table 11.8 for more details):
20 n = p
n
!=ð
n
x
Þ! ¼
(11.19)
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