Naked Science Forum
On the Lighter Side => New Theories => Topic started by: Lamarck2014 on 01/05/2015 13:28:19
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Few days ago it has been published a paper in the format of new scientific theory in "Frontiers in Molecular biosciences", entitled "Elements of the cellular metabolic structure", in which the main finding is the discovery of a new biochemical system (the CMS) with the capacity to store molecular information.
CMS exhibits two essential dynamic mechanisms. The first one occurs at the level of the self-organized metabolic networks in which Hopfield-like dynamics regulate the enzymatic activities. The second mechanism occurs at the post-translational modulation level.
According to this published dualistic theory of the cell hereditary information, cells exhibit two systems capable of storing molecular information, a dynamic, flexible and adaptive system: the CMS (metabolic memory), and an essentially conservative structural system: the DNA (genetic memory).
The original paper is:
De la Fuente IM (2015) Elements of the cellular metabolic structure. Front. Mol. Biosci. 2:16. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2015.00016
The link:
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmolb.2015.00016/abstract
It represents a paradigm shift in biology this discovery?
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Our understanding of the inheritance mechanisms is clearly amplifying nowadays. It seems that the epigenetic studies are the mainstream in genetics. Furthermore, there are already a notable number of publications on transgenerational non-genetic transfer, all of them are looking for its mechanism. To the best of my knowledge, the molecular basis of this inheritance remains unknown; nevertheless the published results mostly suggest different types of RNA as the best candidates. You cited the article that points towards inherited metabolic memory. I don’t understand some part of the article well but such statement sounds for me rather revolutionary!
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well, the mechanisms are still unknown yes, specially in multicellular organisms, I have read that in the case of some bacteria it may be due to, among other factors, the long half-life of some proteins, the covalent modifications of the DNA and the metabolic activity itself. Multicellular organisms, specially those that reproduce sexually pose more of a challenge because we need to understand the relationship of the organism's experience and activity with the gametogenesis.
What this paper does provide is a new view on the mechanisms underlying all these phenomena, which I think will open the door to further research and understanding