CHAPTER V 



RELATIONSHIP OF GENES TO 

 ENZYMES 



1. The Nature of Enzymes 



Two protein molecules of different types do not combine with one 

 another because of the presence of the repulsive polar forces resulting: 

 from the different structures, whereas if they have structures, comple- 

 mentary to each other, having strong attractive forces, the combi- 

 nation will be established. However, repulsive polar forces, if present, 

 will exert mutually disturbing influences when the two molecules 

 having the complementarily shaped structures are drawn near by the 

 attractive force. For the establishment of the combination of two such 

 protein molecules the attractive force must be stronger than the re- 

 pulsive force, but the mutual repulsive action will become very mani- 

 fest when the combination is established. 



Now, if the repulsive force of protein A is much greater than 

 that of protein B, the structure of this latter protein will be changed 

 on being defeated by the repulsive force of the former, thereby all the 

 structures in B will be changed to become complementary to those in 

 A. The structural change of the protein B to become complementary 

 to A in its structural pattern is nothing but to become identical with 

 A itself ; accordingly through this change B is assimilized by A. In 

 this case A is assimilase. When polymerized orderly, the structure of 

 protein molecules will become stable with the enhancement of their 

 structural influence. Assimilase is therefore usually polymerization 

 product of protein molecules of the same structure, and can adsorb 

 protein molecules through the complementary structure to assimilize 

 and to eat the latter molecules, thus being able to grow. Accordinly 

 assimilase is the primitive form of life itself, and at the same time it 

 is a kind of enzymes. 



When the influence of A is not so great as to make the structure 

 of protein B identical with it protein B will only be disturbed in its 

 structure. If the protein is "denatured" as a result of such a distur- 

 bance and deprived of its faculty to combine with the protein A, the 

 protein B will be liberated form A. A can thus combine again with 

 another protein which will in turn be denatured and again liberated. 



