Two operative concepts for the post-genomic era: the "mémoire vive" of the cell and a molecular algebra.
The first successes in cloning experiments and stem cell "reprogramming" have already demonstrated the primordial role of cellular working-space memory and regulatory mechanisms, which use the knowledge stored in the DNA database in read mode. We present an analogy between living systems and informatics systems by considering: 1) the cell cytoplasm as a memory device accessible as read/write; 2) the mechanisms of regulation as a programming language defined by a grammar, a molecular algebra; 3) biological processes as volatile programs which are executed without being written; 4) DNA as a database in read only mode. We also present applications to two biological algorithms: the immune response and glycogen metabolism.
Bentolila
Simone
S
IGM, University Marne la Vallée, Cité Descartes, Marne la Vallée, Cedex 2, 77454, France. tolila@infobiogen.fr
D032701:Biomimetics / Q000379:methods*; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D003198:Computer Simulation; D039301:Computers, Molecular; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D008568:Memory; D008954:Models, Biological; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted