Interpreting biological phenomena at the molecular and cellular levels reveals the ways in which information that is specific to living organisms is processed: from the genetic record contained in a strand of DNA, to the translation process, and then to the construction of proteins that carry the flow and processing of information as well as reveal evolutionary mechanisms. The processing of a surprisingly small amount of information, i.e., in the range of 1 GB, contains the record of human DNA that is used in the construction of the highly complex system that is the human body. This shows that what is important is not the quantity of information but rather its skillful use-in other words, this facilitates proper processing. This paper describes the quantitative relations that characterize information during the successive steps of the "biological dogma", illustrating a transition from the recording of information in a DNA strand to the production of proteins exhibiting a defined specificity. It is this that is encoded in the form of information and that determines the unique activity, i.e., the measure of a protein's "intelligence". In a situation of information deficit at the transformation stage of a primary protein structure to a tertiary or quaternary structure, a particular role is served by the environment as a supplier of complementary information, thus leading to the achievement of a structure that guarantees the fulfillment of a specified function. Its quantitative evaluation is possible via using a "fuzzy oil drop" (FOD), particularly with respect to its modified version. This can be achieved when taking into account the participation of an environment other than water in the construction of a specific 3D structure (FOD-M). The next step of information processing on the higher organizational level is the construction of the proteome, where the interrelationship between different functional tasks and organism requirements can be generally characterized by homeostasis. An open system that maintains the stability of all components can be achieved exclusively in a condition of automatic control that is realized by negative feedback loops. This suggests a hypothesis of proteome construction that is based on the system of negative feedback loops. The purpose of this paper is the analysis of information flow in organisms with a particular emphasis on the role of proteins in this process. This paper also presents a model introducing the component of changed conditions and its influence on the protein folding process-since the specificity of proteins is coded in their structure.
Keywords: DNA; bit; complexity; genetic code; homeostasis; information; information deficiency; protein folding; proteome construction; reaching the goal; translation.