[Fis] Fwd: Re: Informatics of DNA (From Sungchul)

Pedro C. Marijuan pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es
Fri Dec 1 09:04:00 CET 2017


Asunto: 	Re: [Fis] Informatics of DNA
Fecha: 	Thu, 30 Nov 2017 23:33:09 +0000
De: 	Sungchul Ji <sji at pharmacy.rutgers.edu>
Para: 	FIS Group <fis at listas.unizar.es>, yxs at pku.edu.cn <yxs at pku.edu.cn>



Hi  Xueshan,


1. I highly appreciate your informational parsing on cell language and 
the comparative study of cell language and human language. By the end of 
last century, the main topics of (Human) Linguistics have been basically 
completed. It is not known whether human language study can get any 
inspiration from cell language study.

The concept of the third articulation that emerged in cell biology 
around 2012 (the reference to be provided upon request) is useful in 
understanding cell metabolism and hence perhaps in linguistics too:


1st articulation = words ----> sentences;

2nd articulation = letters ----> words;

3rd articulation  = sentences ----> texts (e.g., the syllogism)


*Table 1.*  The isomorphism between the human and cell languages

*Human Language *

	

*Cell Language *

	

*Function*


Letters

	


A. C, G, T or U

	


to build


Words

	


genes/mRNA/proteins

	


to denote


Sentences

	


metabolic pathways

	


to decide and judge


Texts

	


functional networks of metabolic pathways

	


to reason and compute


We recently discovered that what we came to refer to as the 
"*Planck-Shannon plot*" can be used to identify the 
cell-linguistic counter-parts of *sentences*and *texts*based on mRNA 
data measured from, e.g., human breast tissues.  I will be detailing 
this finding shortly in a later post.


2. What kind of information definition and principle(s) have you got 
from the cell language study? To what extent are they applicable to 
other information fields? Exactly, your conclusions are mainly from the 
analysis of genetic cell. Among the biological information, the second 
major field of information application is neural cell. Are they 
effective in Neuroscience?

A good question.  We have not yet extended our cell-linguistic approach 
to neural network.  When we do, we may find evidence for higher-order 
articulations such as the fourth, fifth, sixth articulations, etc.


3. At the macro level, in your seven (six) steps of information flow 
scheme, we can consider all the content as "cell information / genetic 
information". But on the step 6, what you call it: Cell Functions→Human 
Behaviors, they transform cell information / genetic information into 
human information. If some information can be understood by a cell, it 
must not be understood by a (human) brain, and vice versa. How do you 
think of it?

An excellent point.

I often wonder if I do understand cell information biologically but not 
linguistically, i.e., I feel and communicate with every cell in my body 
but cannot articulate that experience due to the limited expressive 
power of human language.  The study of the phenomenon of 
such communication that can occur without linguistic signs has 
recently been referred to as "neo-semiotics" that was formulated by 
extending Peirce's semiotics by including a new category called 
"Zeroness" (see the attached).

4. In your information flow scheme of 
DNA→pre-mRNA→mRNA→proteins→IDS→Cell Functions→Human Behaviors, should 
the leftmost DNA be molecule? So far, we have seen that many researches 
thought that there are communication between molecules. From your 
research experience, are there any real examples of information 
communication took place between molecules?

According to Peirce (1839-1914), communication is irreducibly triadic.  
I have found ti useful to use this definition of communication in my 
research in biology. So I am currently of the opinion that whenever 
there is an irreducible triadic relation, there is communication: i.e.,


                 f                g

A  ------>  B  ------> C
         |                                 ^
         |                                  |
         |_________________|

                 h

*Figure 1*.  A diagrammatic representation of the *irreducible triadic 
relation*(ITR) or *communication.*   A = source; B = message; C = 
receiver; f = encoding; g = decoding; h = grouding or information flow.

There is no reason why A, B and C cannot be all molecules, e.g., A = 
DNA/RNA, B = proteins, and C = chemical reactions, but this does not 
mean that molecules A is communicating with molecule C, because without 
the third and the rest of the communication system, no communication 
would be possible.

5. Before 1952, the concept of "information" was rarely used in the 
works of Genetics. After Molecular Genetics, or after Crick's "central 
dogma", in Genetics research, many places used to use "gene" were 
replaced by "information". Do you think is it feasible to replace all 
"gene" with "information" completely at last?

I don't think so, because all genes carry information but not all 
information carriers are genes.


All the best.


Sung




------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* Fis <fis-bounces at listas.unizar.es> on behalf of Xueshan Yan 
<yxs at pku.edu.cn>
*Sent:* Thursday, November 30, 2017 8:35 AM
*To:* FIS Group
*Subject:* Re: [Fis] Informatics of DNA

Dear Sungchul,

1. I highly appreciate your informational parsing on cell language and 
the comparative study of cell language and human language. By the end of 
last century, the main topics of (Human) Linguistics have been basically 
completed. It is not known whether human language study can get any 
inspiration from cell language study.

2. What kind of information definition and principle(s) have you got 
from the cell language study? To what extent are they applicable to 
other information fields? Exactly, your conclusions are mainly from the 
analysis of genetic cell. Among the biological information, the second 
major field of information application is neural cell. Are they 
effective in Neuroscience?

3. At the macro level, in your seven (six) steps of information flow 
scheme, we can consider all the content as "cell information / genetic 
information". But on the step 6, what you call it: Cell Functions→Human 
Behaviors, they transform cell information / genetic information into 
human information. If some information can be understood by a cell, it 
must not be understood by a (human) brain, and vice versa. How do you 
think of it?

4. In your information flow scheme of 
DNA→pre-mRNA→mRNA→proteins→IDS→Cell Functions→Human Behaviors, should 
the leftmost DNA be molecule? So far, we have seen that many researches 
thought that there are communication between molecules. From your 
research experience, are there any real examples of information 
communication took place between molecules?

5. Before 1952, the concept of "information" was rarely used in the 
works of Genetics. After Molecular Genetics, or after Crick's "central 
dogma", in Genetics research, many places used to use "gene" were 
replaced by "information". Do you think is it feasible to replace all 
"gene" with "information" completely at last?

Best wishes,

Xueshan

*From:*fis-bounces at listas.unizar.es 
[mailto:fis-bounces at listas.unizar.es] *On Behalf Of *Pedro C. Marijuan
*Sent:* Wednesday, November 29, 2017 9:41 PM
*To:* 'fis' <fis at listas.unizar.es>
*Subject:* [Fis] Informatics of DNA (Sungchul Ji)

Hi FISers,

We may have in DNA a golden opportunity to define what *information* is.

*(1)*We now know that we are different from mice because our 
DNA sequences are different from those of mice [1].  That is, we are 
different from mice because our DNA carries different kinds (both 
with respect to /quality/ and /quantity/) of INFORMATIONfrom the mouse DNA:

”When it comes to protein-encoding genes, mice are 85% similar to 
humans.  For non-coding genes, it's only about 50%. The National Human 
Genome  Research Institute attributes this similarity to a shared 
ancestor about 80 million years ago.” 
http://www.thisisinsider.com/comparing-genetic-similarity-between-humans-and-other-things-2016-5 
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thisisinsider.com%2Fcomparing-genetic-similarity-between-humans-and-other-things-2016-5&data=02%7C01%7Csji%40pharmacy.rutgers.edu%7C65e6d35da38f42a35c0608d537f75fe4%7Cb92d2b234d35447093ff69aca6632ffe%7C1%7C0%7C636476457988945872&sdata=jpAs7QGzTxeIP6qyqUV1jcjOk1OWwKERTNK8V%2FHrg0E%3D&reserved=0>

  (*2*) We also know that our properties or behaviors are at least 
in part determined by both DNA sequences (i.e., /genetics/) and the way 
they are turned on or off  by environment-sensitive cells constituting 
our body (i.e., /epigenetics/): We are the products of both our 
/genes/ and our /environment/.  The causal link between DNA and our 
behaviors can be briefly summarized as follows:

*1                          2                     3                   
  4                5                    6*

*DNA** ----> pre-mRNA -----> mRNA -----> proteins ----->  IDS -----> 
Cell Functions  -----> Human Behaviors
^ |
| |
| 
                                                                               |
| 
                                                                                         |
    |_________________________________________________________________________________|*

*7*

***Figure A. *The flow of genetic and epigenetic informations between 
DNA and the human behavior.  IDS stands for the /In//tracellular 
Dissipative Structures /(also called the /Dissipative Structures of 
Prigogine/) such as ion gradients across cell membranes and within the 
cytoplasm without any membrane barriers.  According to the Bhopalator, a 
molecular model of the living cell proposed in 1985 in a meeting held 
in Bhopal, India, IDS's are postulated to be the immediate or the 
proximal causes for all cell functions [2].  The seven steps in the 
scheme are

*1* = transcription

*2* = splicing

*3* = translation (explained in (3) in more detail.)

*4* = enzyme catalysis

*5* = cell motions

*6* = body motions
*7* = the effect of human behavior or emotion on gene expression, e.g., 
see the phenomenon of the /conservedtranscriptional response 
to adversity/ (CTRA) [3].

  I hope that the /information// flow scheme/ shown in* Figure A* can 
serve as a concrete example of information inaction as 
information scientists strive to come up with a generally acceptable 
definition of what INFORMATIONis.

  (*3*)  Unlike in Steps 1 and 2 where the same kinds of molecules, 
i.e., the nucleic acids, DNA and RNA, directly interact (or contact 
or touch each other) via the Watson-Crick base-paring mechanism (see the 
second row in *Figure 1* below), in Step 3, there is no such direct 
interaction between mRNA and amino acids, but rather their 
interactions are mediated by tRNA which recognizes mRNA  at  its 
/anti-codon arm/ and amino acids at its 3/'-acceptor stem/, about 60 
angstroms away (see the blue region in the mechanism of translation 
shown at 
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-ribosomes-so-important-in-plant-cells 
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.quora.com%2FWhy-are-ribosomes-so-important-in-plant-cells&data=02%7C01%7Csji%40pharmacy.rutgers.edu%7C65e6d35da38f42a35c0608d537f75fe4%7Cb92d2b234d35447093ff69aca6632ffe%7C1%7C0%7C636476457988945872&sdata=JWXFYri%2BEXQzF3%2B2nfzklANJlXbKYoP2sEmgk9l%2BUs8%3D&reserved=0>). 
The universality of the wave-particle duality demonstrated in [4] 
suggest that the tripartite coupling  among codon, anticodon, and amino 
acid in the ribosome-mRNA-tRNA complex may be mediated by /resonant 
vibrations/ or /standing waves/ (also called /resonance/ or /resonant 
waves/) generated within the complex, just as the vibratioal patterns 
located at distant regions on the Chladni (1756-1827)  plate [5, 6] are 
coordinated via resonance.

The Chladni plate [5, 6] is an ideal model for illustrating the role of 
resonance in molecular biology.  At a given resonance frequency, the 
particles on remote regions of the Chaldni plate are coordinated without 
any direct interactions between them and yet form ordered patterns.  To 
me this is similar to what happens in the ribosome system when a peptide 
molecule is synthesized; i.e, different components of the 
ribosome-mRNA-tRNA complex execute their motions that are so coordinated 
as to achieve the peptide synthesis.   The ribosome and the Chladni 
plate are compared at several levels in *Table 1.*

.....

Sungchul Ji <sji.conformon at gmail.com> <mailto:sji.conformon at gmail.com>

The message continues at:
http://fis.sciforum.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/11/Sung_informatics-of-DNA.pdf 
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffis.sciforum.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2014%2F11%2FSung_informatics-of-DNA.pdf&data=02%7C01%7Csji%40pharmacy.rutgers.edu%7C65e6d35da38f42a35c0608d537f75fe4%7Cb92d2b234d35447093ff69aca6632ffe%7C1%7C1%7C636476457988945872&sdata=iPI2Hk3qA8UyEq0Fb8SIv5xeaxIogNQSSXGV03ffUao%3D&reserved=0>

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