Enzymes, artificial cells and the nature of biological information

Biosystems. 1995;35(2-3):167-70. doi: 10.1016/0303-2647(94)01507-4.

Abstract

Recent progresses in enzyme processing within an expanding array of disciplines make the informational analysis of the whole enzymic complexity of the simplest cellular systems appear as a plausible interdisciplinary enterprise. The term 'artificial cell' could be used as a label to encompass these global information processing models of the cell. In a simplified view, three different degrees of enzymic complexity emerge: self-organization, self-reshaping and self-modification. They imply that metabolic enzyme networks endowed with a signaling system and with a 'DNA world', constitute a genuine information processing engine for cellular problem solving, a true molecular 'society'. Philosophically, a new path can be followed to discuss the biological foundations and the paradoxes of the information concept. Other 'informational societies' could be analyzed in a similar way.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cells
  • Computer Simulation
  • Enzymes / metabolism*
  • In Vitro Techniques
  • Information Systems*
  • Kinetics
  • Models, Biological*

Substances

  • Enzymes