PRIMARY 

 ACTIONS 



A. THE CHROMOSOMAL SITE 



Since it must be considered as certain that the chromosome 

 remains intact in the resting nucleus, the first step in genie action 

 must take place at the site of the genie material, whether we consider 

 this to be in the form of individual genes or as patterns in a larger 

 unit. Only two possibilities are apparent. First, the initial product of 

 genie activity is a duplicate (eventually in reverse) of the genie 

 material or any part of it. This might mean a duplicate of the genie 

 nucleoprotein, or only of the nucleinic or proteinic parts thereof. If 

 this is so, part of the genie material itself is also its first active 

 product, in the beginning localized at the locus of the genie material, 

 at a point on the surface of the chromosome. The other possibility is 

 that the genie material acts as an enzyme which catalyzes the first 

 reaction product using the surrounding materials as a substrate, dif- 

 ferent products occurring presumably along the length of the chro- 

 mosome. Also, these primary products would first accumulate at the 

 fixed sites of the genie material in the order of its pattern along the 

 chromosome. Hence, in the end, both possibilities lead to the same 

 result as far as the site is concerned. 



According to the first assumption, the genie material behaves 

 after the manner of an autocatalyst (first emphasized by Hagedoorn, 

 1911). It has been repeatedly pointed out (e.g., Pauling, Muller) 

 that the term autocatalyst does not cover the duplication of the genie 

 material, which is rather a re-creation at the surface of the chain mole- 

 cules according to one or the other theories of template action dis- 

 cussed previously. Though realizing the diflFerence, it might be useful 

 to speak of autocatalysis and heterocatalysis in the sense of self- 

 duplication versus catalyzing a different reaction. In this sense it 

 would be autocatalysis also if duplicates of the genie material were 

 the first product separated from the chromosome. In detail, these 

 primary products would look different according to the theory of the 

 genie material adopted. With the classic theory of the gene, we would 

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