CHAPTER I 



BIOCHEMICAL ARCHITECTURE 



In the world of biology the chemical elements are arranged in 

 complex patterns to form the body of plants or animals. The 

 combination of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, oxygen, 

 hydrogen and other elements to form carbohydrates, amino- 

 acids, peptides, proteins, and other organic compounds provides 

 the basis for the study of biochemistry. 



Any animal body is composed of such substances, together with 

 other materials such as water and mineral salts. The analysis of 

 biological substances has recently been given a great impetus by 

 the application of modern techniques such as chromatography, 

 electrophoresis, flame photometry, and electron microscopy. These 

 methods have both simplified and expanded the task of those 

 interested in the structure of the tissues of animals. The recent 

 discoveries of Sanger on the amino-acid sequence in insulin, and of 

 Perutz and Kendrew on the molecular constitution of haemoglobin 

 and myoglobin indicate the ultimate refinements of such analytical 

 methods. 



A great deal of the pioneer work in analysing bodily composition 

 has been confined to the mammals because of the ease of obtaining 

 raw materials in large enough quantities for detection of substances 

 in small quantity, even by the most delicate instrumentation. It is 

 only comparatively recently that the new techniques have been 

 applied to the study of invertebrate structures. It is to be hoped that 

 this embryonic interest will continue to thrive for the results are 

 indicative of very interesting facts waiting to be discovered. This 

 is exemplified in the oligochaetes by the analysis of the compound 

 acting as a phosphagen in the earthworm, lombricine, in con- 

 tradiction to the long held view that arginine phosphate is the 

 phosphagen common to invertebrate animals. 



Most of the work appertaining to the biochemical structure of 



1 



