Organic codes: Metaphors or realities?
Coding characteristics have been discovered not only in protein synthesis, but also in various other natural processes, thus showing that the genetic code is not an isolated case in the organic world. Other examples are the sequence codes, the adhesion code, the signal transduction codes, the splici...
| Publicado en: | Sign Systems Studies Vol. 30; no. 2; pp. 743 - 755 |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
University of Tartu
2002
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | Coding characteristics have been discovered not only in protein synthesis, but also in various other natural processes, thus showing that the genetic code is not an isolated case in the organic world. Other examples are the sequence codes, the adhesion code, the signal transduction codes, the splicing codes, the sugar code, the histone code, and probably more. These discoveries however have not had a significant impact because of the widespread belief that organic codes are not real but metaphorical entities. They are supposed to lack arbitrariness and codemakers, the two qualifying features of real codes. Here it is shown that the arbitrariness issue can be solved on an experimental basis, while the codemaker issue is dependent on our theoretical description of the cell and can only be solved by a new concept. In order to appreciate the reality of the organic codes, in short, it is necessary to have not only a more critical evaluation of the experimental data but also a new theory of the living system. Kodeerimise tunnuseid pole leitud ainult valgusünteesis, vaid ka mitmetes teistes eluslooduse protsessides. See tÕendab, et geneetiline kood pole erandlik juhtum orgaanilises maailmas. Teisteks näideteks on järjestuskoodid, adhesiooni kood, signaali transduktsiooni kood, splaissingu koodid, suhkrute kood, histoonide kood ja ilmselt veelgi. Neil avastustel pole siiski olnud märkimisväärset mÕju laialt levinud uskumuse tÕttu, et orgaanilised koodid pole mitte tÕelised, vaid on pigem metafoorsed. Arvatakse, et neil puuduvad arbitraarsus ja koodi moodustajad - kaks reaalsete koodide tunnust. Käesolevas töös näidatakse, et arbitraarsuse küsimuse saab lahendada eksperimentaalsel alusel, samas kui koodi moodustaja küsimus sÕltub raku teoreetilisest kirjeldusest ning on lahendatav vaid uue mÕisteaparaadi kaasabil. Niisiis, orgaaniliste koodide tunnustamiseks on vaja mitte ainult eksperimentaalse andmestiku kriitilisemat hindamist, vaid ka elussüsteemi uut teooriat. |
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