Why DNA?
From DNA Sequence to Biological Complexity

Describes how the physical chemistry of the DNA molecule links biological complexity, information flux and evolution to energy.

Andrew Travers (Author)

9781107056398, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 February 2022

222 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.5 cm, 0.5 kg

'In What Is Life? Schrödinger conjectured that, in animate matter, order is derived from order, foreshadowing the discovery of DNA structure. Why DNA? is about this molecule and its dual information content - in linear genetic code and in thermodynamics of three-dimensional DNA structures. It addresses how DNA's intrinsic order led to complex, highly ordered living organisms, in a world that strives towards disorder. Why would DNA supplant RNA in carrying hereditary information during biological evolution? Why did multicellular organisms emerge, since natural selection favours the fittest, such as simple bacteria? What is complexity, and what has it to do with Bayesian logic? How do complexity, information and energy interrelate? This is a succinct discourse on Schrödinger's question, expanding from molecular interactions and genome cooperation to ecological systems and societal evolution. A must-read for biology scholars, and anyone interested in life's origins, biological evolution and the interface of biology and physics.' Georgi Muskhelishvili, Agricultural University of Georgia, Tbilisi

Information is central to the evolution of biological complexity, a physical system relying on a continuous supply of energy. Biology provides superb examples of the consequent Darwinian selection of mechanisms for efficient energy utilisation. Genetic information, underpinned by the Watson-Crick base-pairing rules is largely encoded by DNA, a molecule uniquely adapted to its roles in information storage and utilisation.This volume addresses two fundamental questions. Firstly, what properties of the molecule have enabled it to become the predominant genetic material in the biological world today and secondly, to what extent have the informational properties of the molecule contributed to the expansion of biological diversity and the stability of ecosystems. The author argues that bringing these two seemingly unrelated topics together enables Schrödinger's What is Life?, published before the structure of DNA was known, to be revisited and his ideas examined in the context of our current biological understanding.

Acknowledgements
Preface
1. The perennial question
2. The nature of information – information, complexity and entropy
3. DNA – the molecule
4. The evolution of biological complexity
5. Cooperating genomes
6. DNA, information and complexity
7. Origins
8. The complexity of societies
9. Why DNA – and not RNA?
General reading and bibliography.

Subject Areas: Molecular biology [PSD], Biochemistry [PSB], DNA & Genome [PSAK1], Genetics [non-medical PSAK], Evolution [PSAJ], Biophysics [PHVN], Physiology [MFG], Information theory [GPF]