Multicellular Systems - Molecular Theory of the Living Cell - page 521

Table 15.4 Examples of equilibrons and dissipatons in the Universe
Size Equilibrons Dissipatons

Macroscopic Chairs, tables, cold candle sticks, rocks,
secondary memory of a computer

Candle flames, sounds, city traffic flow
patterns, primary memory of a
computer

Microscopic X-ray structures of proteins, RNA and
DNA, linear sequences of nucleotides
in genes, molecular structures of ATP,
NADH, and glucose

Membrane potentials, cytosolic
gradients of ions and metabolites,
spatiotemporal patterns of changes
in RNA levels in cells and embryos
(Figs. 9.1 , 15.1 )

energy for their existence. Thus, anything that disappears when free energy supply
is blocked belongs to the family of dissipatons while anything that remains
unaffected by the blockade of free energy supply belongs to that of equilibrons .
Some examples of these two classes of structures are given in Table 15.4 .
2. There are many examples of dissipatons produced inside the cell, including
the time-dependent changes in RNA levels in budding yeast measured with
DNA microarrays which correlate with cell functions (Figs. 9.1 , 12.2a )
(Ji et al. 2009a). These so-called RNA kinetic patterns (also called “RNA
trajectories”, ribons, or RNA waves ; see Sect. 12.7 ) can be visualized on a
2-dimensional plane as shown in Figs. 12.10 and 12.11 .
3. One of the most distinct features of the molecular theory of the living
cell being developed in this topic is what is here referred to as the Dissipaton-
Cell Function Identity (DCFI) Hypothesis which was also referred to as the
IDS-Cell Function Identity (ICFI) Hypothesis in Sect. 12.5 . This hypothesis
asserts that dissipatons and cell functions are the two sides of the same coin.
That is, dissipatons and cell functions are the internal (or endo ) and external
( exo ) views, respectively, of the same phenomenon known as the living cell.
4. If we designate intracellular dissipatons associated with some cell function as
X, the following generalization holds, because the activity (or level) of X must
be able to undergo either an increase or a decrease whenever the cell needs
in order to adapt to changing environment. Therefore, there must exist two
processes, one producing X and the other destroying it as depicted in Fig. 15.2 .
5. All cell functions can be accounted for, at least in principle, in terms of X, a set
of molecules (e.g., enzymes, ATP, ions, RNA, etc.) whose kinetic patterns (also
called behaviors, trajectories, or dissipatons) “cause” or “are correlated with”
cell functions. This is the content of the DCFI hypothesis mentioned in 3 above.
6. Finally, it is suggested here that Fig. 15.2 can be applied to what goes on in
the extracellular space (ECS), if we assume that there exists X 0 in ECS which is
both produced (from X as a part of F) and destroyed in a manner similar to X
in Fig. 15.2 so as to maintain its kinetic patterns to produce all extracellular
structures and processes needed for all cell functions including morphogenesis.
We will refer to this idea as the Dissipative Structure Theory of Morphogenesis
(DSTM). Figure 15.4 schematically depicts the elements of DSTM.