Abstract
Despite the fact that the name ‘proteins’ means primordial molecules, they have apparently been supplanted as directors of life by genes, the nucleic acids being the vectors of heredity. Any change to become hereditary must, by some means or other, enter the genome, in other words must modify the long nucleotide sequence determining the developing program. Information is inscribed in genes as a one- dimensional reading system, and the deoxyribonucleic acids that constitute the genes are therefore long linear molecules, like cassette tape ribbons. But the living order is three-dimensional and the translation or transferance from a nucleotide sequence (nucleic acid) to an amino acid sequence (protein) is in fact a passage from one-dimensional to three-dimensional system, and therefore essentially a morphogenic mechanism. In contrast to nucleotide sequences, amino acid sequences spontaneously generate specific shapes depending upon the order of amino acids.
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© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
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Acher, R. (1989). New Insights into the Evolution of Proteins. In: Maruani, J. (eds) Molecules in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Topics in Molecular Organization and Engineering, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1173-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1173-4_2
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