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Analyzing and Building Nucleic Acid Structures with 3DNA
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DNA as information.

Peter R Wills1

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Auckland, PO Box 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand Institut für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie, Universität Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 6, 20146 Hamburg, Germany Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina, 120 Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7260, USA p.wills@auckland.ac.nz.

Philosophical Transactions. Series A, Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences
|February 10, 2016
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This review explores DNA as information, examining its structure, content measurement, biological role, and the origin of genetic coding. It discusses the transition of physical systems from uninformed states to meaningful biological computation.

Keywords:
DNAaperiodic crystalgenetic codinginformationmeaningnominable entities

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Area of Science:

  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics
  • Information Theory
  • Biophysics

Background:

  • The concept of DNA as a carrier of biological information is fundamental to modern biology.
  • Understanding the quantitative and qualitative aspects of this information is crucial for deciphering life's processes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review current research on DNA as information.
  • To explore the relationship between DNA structure and its information content.
  • To investigate the emergence of genetic coding and biological computation.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of contributions to the theme issue.
  • Analysis of concepts related to DNA structure and information theory.
  • Discussion of the role of information in biological systems.

Main Results:

  • DNA's structure inherently encodes vast amounts of information.
  • Methods exist to measure the information content of DNA sequences.
  • Genetic coding represents a pivotal transition from physical to biological information processing.

Conclusions:

  • DNA's information-carrying capacity is central to its biological function.
  • The origin of genetic coding signifies a key step in the evolution of complexity.
  • Further research can illuminate the physical basis of biological computation.