Читать книгу Astrobiology - Charles S. Cockell - Страница 108

We now have a membrane containing the molecule of life. But obvious questions arise: How is the biochemistry of life controlled? What is the way in which instructions are read and directed to make molecules required for the cell to function and eventually to reproduce itself? The key information storage molecule of life is deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA. We briefly explored the structure of this molecule in the previous chapter. We learned about the four bases, guanine, adenine, cytosine, and thymine, which comprise the information code within the DNA, the bases strung together in a long sequence of different combinations. Here, we investigate how the code is turned into useful proteins.

The information storage system is crucial to the cell, since from this information, all cell instructions and coordinated biological patterns emerge. Instructions for the cell to replicate itself and interact with its environment are provided. Within complex multicellular organisms, this information coordinates cells, allowing them to communicate with each other and create differentiated cell structures, with each cell playing a dedicated role in the whole.