TY - JOUR
T1 - DNA: Hardware and software of life
AU - Lucas, Amand
PY - 2014/12/1
Y1 - 2014/12/1
N2 - In this introductory paper I will first go back in history and endeavor to explain in simple terms, with the support of optical diffraction experiments, just how X-ray fiber diffraction pictures lead Watson and Crick to discover the DNA double helix. Second I will present the geometrical and chemical structures of the molecule, the “hardware of life”, emphasizing in some detail the nature of the hydrogen bonding in the Watson–Crick (WC) base pairs A–T, G–C formed by the natural bases of the genetic alphabet. I will then discuss a class of twelve artificial analogues to these bases, some of which have been successfully synthesized by organic chemists by rearranging the pattern of hydrogen bonds of the base pairs. Adopting the perspective of theoretical computer science and error-coding theory, I will finally present DNA as the “software of life”, by discussing Mac Dónaill’s recent interpretation of the optimality of the natural genetic cipher as compared to other possible alphabets selected from the artificial analogues.
AB - In this introductory paper I will first go back in history and endeavor to explain in simple terms, with the support of optical diffraction experiments, just how X-ray fiber diffraction pictures lead Watson and Crick to discover the DNA double helix. Second I will present the geometrical and chemical structures of the molecule, the “hardware of life”, emphasizing in some detail the nature of the hydrogen bonding in the Watson–Crick (WC) base pairs A–T, G–C formed by the natural bases of the genetic alphabet. I will then discuss a class of twelve artificial analogues to these bases, some of which have been successfully synthesized by organic chemists by rearranging the pattern of hydrogen bonds of the base pairs. Adopting the perspective of theoretical computer science and error-coding theory, I will finally present DNA as the “software of life”, by discussing Mac Dónaill’s recent interpretation of the optimality of the natural genetic cipher as compared to other possible alphabets selected from the artificial analogues.
KW - Artificial basepairs
KW - DNA
KW - Error-coding theory
KW - Genetic alphabet
KW - Hydrogen bonding
KW - Optical simulations
KW - X-ray diffraction
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84927123077&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10825-014-0570-3
DO - 10.1007/s10825-014-0570-3
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84927123077
SN - 1569-8025
VL - 13
SP - 781
EP - 793
JO - Journal of Computational Electronics
JF - Journal of Computational Electronics
IS - 4
ER -