III. THE NATURE OF GENES 243 



This fact indicates that the property for replica formation appears to 

 be a characteristic of proteins, at least proteins appearing to have the 

 property most suitable for the replica formation. This is one of the 

 main reasons why the writer has taken into considerations only pro- 

 teins in the argument into the nature of virus or of protoplasm. 

 Since substances such as sugars and lipids in protoplasm may merely 

 be subjected to the pattern of the protoplasm directed by genes, the 

 argument can be advanced without regard to their existence so far as 

 the problem is concerned with the replica formation. 



