Abstract
A Boolean structure of the genetic code where Boolean deductions have biological and physicochemical meanings was discussed in a previous paper. Now, from these Boolean deductions we propose to define the value of amino acid information in order to consider the genetic information system as a communication system and to introduce the semantic content of information ignored by the conventional information theory. In this proposal, the value of amino acid information is proportional to the molecular weight of amino acids with a proportional constant of about 1.96×1025 bits per kg. In addition to this, for the experimental estimations of the minimum energy dissipation in genetic logic operations, we present two postulates: (1) the energy Ei(i=1,2,...,20) of amino acids in the messages conveyed by proteins is proportional to the value of information, and (2) amino acids are distributed according to their energy Ei so the amino acid population in proteins follows a Boltzmann distribution. Specifically, in the genetic message carried by the DNA from the genomes of living organisms, we found that the minimum energy dissipation in genetic logic operations was close to kTLn(2) joules per bit.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1017-1029 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Bulletin of Mathematical Biology |
Volume | 67 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2005 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Neuroscience
- Immunology
- General Mathematics
- General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
- General Environmental Science
- Pharmacology
- General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
- Computational Theory and Mathematics