From: Philippe Verdy (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Sat Sep 25 2004 - 11:18:37 CDT
From: "Curtis Clark" <jcclark-lists@earthlink.net>
> on 2004-09-24 10:05 Peter Constable did quote:
>> After the DNA, the ASCII-Code is the most successful code on this
>> planet.
>
> Things get more and more complex. DNA is a 2-bit code.
Not completely true. It is a bit less than 2 bits, due to its replication
chains, and the presence of insertion points where cross-overs are possible.
But the effective code is a bit more complex than just the ATCG system, as
some studies have demonstrated that the DNA alone has no function out of its
substrate, whose nature influence its "decoding".
There are some extra pieces of information that are not coded directly in
the DNA, and the DNA itself has a 3D structure which cannot be modeled
completely with just this alphabet (try computing the position of sulfurs
and oxidations only from this chain!).
Research on DNA solves this problem by isolating active subchains of the DNA
whose behavior does not depend significantly on the substrate. The DNA is
splitted by "locus" points where variation can occur. And not all of the DNA
is actively coding useful information; large fragments are simply there to
consolidate its structure, or to recover from replication damages.
In fact you can determine much more things from ARN fragments than from ADN
itself. Simply because ARN is not only the replication of ADN, but also the
result of its structuration in the substrate, with which it will help
synthetize proteinic chains. Other information are also contained in the
mediators that help transform the ARN information into proteins. Some of
these mediators are sometimes external to the cell, or may come from
parasitic agents (bacteries, virus), or live in synbiotic condition with the
cell that need this pollution to live itself. Suppress those parasitic or
synbiotic agents and the DNA alone will not allow the cell to survive...
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