BASIC BIOCHEMICAL QUESTIONS 



unlike units through a uniform Hnking mechanism. This 

 creates unique and specific surface and structure patterns which 

 we call proteins, nucleic acids, and mucopolysaccharides. The 

 primary determinants are a fixed sequential arrangement. 



So far this type of problem has not occurred in man-made 

 chemistry and it is rather puzzling. Energy is needed first 

 for the joining of the common links in the backbone. Secondly, 

 the lining up of a defined sequential arrangement, the patterni- 

 zation, represents a structural energy equivalent or rather, an 

 increase in entropy (Maxwell's "demon"), which is not quite 

 easily defined with our present notions. Patternization, I feel, 

 is dominant in duplication, replication, and mutation. It is 

 possibly important to reiterate that the energy requirement for 

 patternization may be divided into (7) a well-defined caloric 

 equivalent for the joining of the links in the respective backbone 

 structures and (2) an "energy of position," the directing into a 

 specific order. The latter is biologically the most important. 

 We meet here a novel situation, the biochemical definition of 

 which has no well-understood examples to fall back upon. It 

 has become the meeting ground between biochemistry and 

 genetics. To define the problem in all its facets, a fusion be- 

 tween biochemical and genetic principles will be needed. 



It is most likely not mere coincidence that metabolic chem- 

 istry has come to a point where the problem of energy distribu- 

 tion apparently is entering a new stage. The great successes of 

 the past twenty years were obtained by a methodology which 

 aimed at extracting enzymes, coenzymes, and such from the cell. 

 In this manner, rather complex systems could be separated and 

 reunited successfully as, for example, the glycolytic system. The 

 limitation, however, of this approach becomes apparent now. 

 The old methodology of cleaving and separating seems to fall 

 short because the complex and more intrinsic functions of the cell 

 appear to depend on macromolecular arrangements of greater 

 specificity. Therefore, from the analytical point of view, the 

 intrinsic involvement of structure in certain metabolic systems 

 requires new approaches which are slowly developing. It is in 



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