CODE-SCRIPT OF BIOLOGICAL HIGH POLYMERS 117 



duration the protein precursor appears in the microsomal proteins 

 before it is found in the supernatant fraction, whereas the op- 

 posite is true of the ribonucleic acid precursor. I have condensed 

 the data and rounded off the figures for the sake of simplicity. 

 If, in addition to the supernatant fraction (Sp), the microsomal 

 portion soluble in deoxycholate (DS) and the two distinguishable 

 protein fractions of the deoxycholate-insoluble microsome portion 

 (RNP I and II) are surveyed, the movement of leucine into the 

 proteins can be described as follows: RNP II -> RNP I -^ DS 

 -> Sp. An inverse, but probably correlative, direction is found 

 for the movement of inorganic phosphate into the ribonucleic 

 acids, namely, Sp -^ DS -^ RNP. The importance of such find- 

 ings will emerge more clearly if we consider that not only the pro- 

 teins, but also the nucleic acids, of the different cell fractions may 

 be presumed to differ with respect to composition and function. 



5. ON THE CODE-SCRIPT OF BIOLOGICAL HIGH POLYMERS 



If you permit me to take a bird's-eye view — even if it is the view 

 of a very shortsighted bird — I could ask: What is the immediate 

 contribution that chemistry can make to an understanding of 

 heredity? (Please notice that both here and in the title of my talk 

 I used the word chemistry, not biochemistry.) I believe, I have 

 already indicated that in my opinion this contribution must be 

 sought in the complex of problems that has to do with the preser- 

 vation, the transfer and the flow of biological information, and 

 also with what could be called its geometry. We must gain a 

 clearer understanding of the manner in which the ability to send 

 the signals that direct the replication of macromolecules is embed- 

 ded in the very structure of the various high polymers of the cell. 

 I have often said that I do not believe that there exists a hier- 

 archy among the cellular constituents; so that we should not say 

 that, for instance, the nucleic acids or the proteins are more im- 

 portant than the lipids or the polysaccharides. But we can say 

 that the minimum of viable organization is represented by a 

 nucleoprotein, as in the viruses, and the minimum of signaling 



References p. 125 



