WHAT ARE LIVING UNITS? 



89 



Duplicate of "template 

 surface 

 ~~ {illustrating autocatalysis) 



Reverse of template 

 -1-1 surface 



(Illustrating antibody 

 formation) 



Template surface 

 (Illustrating gene or an- 

 tibody area) 



Figure 8a. Diagrammatic section of a specific surface, showing the complementary 

 relation between reproductive catalysis (autocatalysis) and antibody formation. If 

 conditions permit the formation and elution of a mono- or polymolecular layer or 

 plaque of this nature, its subsequent activities depend upon maintenance of the 

 integrity of its surface specificities. It could serve as the carrier or the prosthetic 

 group for a biocatalyst (enzyme), or as a gene or antibody surface. In an editorial 

 aroused by the paper of Alexander in Protoplasma (1931), Dr. Stephen Miall 

 (Chemistry and Industry, London, Sept. 30th, 1932) first used the term template 

 (also spelled templet) in this connection; but many others have since adopted this 

 apt expression. (See page 4.) 



cular groups. In some cases these might even be considered as 

 molecules, or to use a term suggested by J. Alexander and C. B. 

 Bridges 10 for the simplest conceivable unit, as moleculobionts. 

 There is no evidence that anything below the level of the molecular 

 has ever catalytically directed the formation of its like. The 

 resting or latent forms of life seem to persist as long as the basic 

 biocatalysts are not changed to so great a degree that resumption of 

 active life has become impossible; and active life involves the 

 direction of chemical change by the basic catalytic units, together 

 with self-duplication (autocatalysis). 



REFERENCES 



1 Chapter XXIV in Jordan and Falk, "The Newer Knowledge of Bacteriology 

 and Immunology," Univ. of Chicago Press, 1928. 

 2 Botan. Zeit. (1887), 45, 489-610. 

 3 Science (1924), 60, 481. 



*/. Bact. (1931), 322, 183-198; Science (1932), 75, 79, 230. 

 'Am. J. Bot. (1922), 9, 266-9. 



6 /. Agr. Sci. (1924), 29, 349. 



7 Compt. rend. (1906), 26, 1549. 



8 Cereal Chemistry (1947). 



9 W. B. Lang, Science (1946), 103, 175. 



10 Colloid Chemistry, Vol. II, p. 10, 53, Reinhold Pub. Corp., 1928. 



