Extending Tlusty's rate distortion index theorem method to the glycome: Do even 'low level' biochemical phenomena require sophisticated cognitive paradigms?

摘要

Unlike the universal genetic code and ordered protein folding, direct application of Tlusty's method to the glycome produces a reducto ad absurdum: From the beginning a complicated system of chemical cognition is needed so that external information constrains and tunes what would otherwise be a monstrously large 'glycan code error network'. Further, the glycan manufacture machinery itself must be regulated by yet other levels of chemical cognition to ensure that what is produced matches what was chosen for production. Application of a rate distortion index theorem/operator method at this second stage appears possible, permitting analytic characterization of the complicated 'glycan spectra' associated with cellular interactions and their dynamics. The regulation of 'low level' biochemical processes, ranging from gene expression and protein folding through the production of flexible glycan surface signalling fronds, appears to require systems of chemical cognition whose sophistication may rival that of high order neural process.