Praise of Chromosome folly: Confessions of an Untamed Molecular Structure

To the Reader vIntroductory Note xviiPart I The Source of "Folly" and the Reason for Confessions 11 I am an Inconspicuous and Unattractive Creature Painted with Lipstick 32 They Say That I Resemble a Sausage 73 The Cell Is My Castle and Prison But I May Swim and Dance like an Odalisque in a Harem 84 The Striptease Show - How I Dress and Undress at Every Cell Division 115 I Have Created My Own Private World Full of Tricks, Back Door Exits and Novel Solutions - I am an Untamed Innovator 166 My Origins Were Humble - The Antithetical Nature of Matter Left a Mark on My Construction 197 My Split Personality - The Source of "Folly" 228 The Reason for Confessions 269 I Have Been Abused and Covered With Insults 2810 The Wisdom of the Foolish 3111 Scientific Concepts Are Prone to Change Throughout Time - The Nature of Science Demands that Previous Ideas be Superseded, as New Technologies Allow a Deeper Insight into Matter 3612 What Seems Ludicrous at a Given Time Turns Out to be the Correct Explanation Several Years Later. The Gene was Considered to Consist of Protein, But Is Now Known to be a Ribbon of DNA 3913 In the Last 20 Years the Number of Human Genes was Reduced from 200,000 to 32,000, and This Figure Remains Uncertain 4114 The Models of Chromosomes Have Varied Drastically with Time 43References 48Sources of Illustrations 51Part II Who Cares for Gravity 5315 The Chromosome in Its Organization and Activity Follows Its Own Path - It Does Not Obey Gravity, Randomness, Selection or Magnetism 5516 Definition of Gravity - Newton's Laws Are Good for Planets and Apples 5717 What Is a Force - The Four Fundamental Forces 5918Newton's Laws Do Not Apply in Quantum Mechanics 6119 Not All Bodies Fall When Unsupported 6320 The Ascent of Sap in Trees-Another Unexplained Phenomenon 6421 An Unknown Process Decides Which Cells Are Going to Grow in the Direction of Gravity and Which Are Going to Counteract It 6722 Physicists Construct Antigravity Devices that Oblige Frogs and Plants to Float 7123 Atoms Hide Many Properties that May Disclose the Mechanisms Behind Living Processes - Liquid Helium Can Build a Fountain Ejecting Itself Out of a Flask 7324 Levitation in Metals - What Was Impossible Became Possible 7525 Animals, like Plants, Have Created Devices that Counteract Gravity 7726 In Giraffes the Distance between the Heart and the Head Is Over Two Meters 7927 No Chromosome Obeys Newton's Laws - In Their Movements Chromosomes Bypass Gravity 8228 Chromosomes Move in All Directions of the Mariner's Compass 8429 It Is the Programmed Pattern of the Organism that Decides the Direction of Movement 8630 The Devices Used by the Chromosome Which Result in Particular Movements 8731 Chromosomes Move Inside the Nucleus, like Goldfish in an Aquarium, without the Use of Spindle Fibers 8832 The Chromosome's Autonomy Takes Many Forms - The Chromosome Ends May Take Over the Function of Active Mobility on the Spindle 9133 Chromosomes Inherited from the Father May Be Sent to a Different Compartment than Those Inherited from the Mother 9334 How to Move Equally Well without Guiding Asters and Centrosomes 9435 DNA Replication Already Disregarded Gravity 9536 Mineral Crystallization Disposes Also of Gravity and Imposes Massive Copying 9737 The Egg Contents Rotate and the Cells Move within the Embryo Independently of Gravity 9938 Snails Have a Shell in the Form of a Spiral Which Is Either Left-Handed or Right-Handed - The Choice Is Determined by Genes Which Orient the Axis of Cell Division Independently of Gravity 10139 It Comes as a Revelation that the Chromosome Does Not Need Strong Magnets and Extreme Low Temperatures to Evade Gravity 10440 Goddesses Do Not Obey Earthly Laws 105References 107Sources of Illustrations 110Part III Who Cares for Randomness 11341 Randomness Was Originally Foreign to Science 11542 Randomness Is an Economic Concept Introduced into 17th Century Science 11743 Randomness Is Synonymous with Ignorance - "The Folly of Probability" 12244 It Took the Last 20 Years to Demonstrate that What Were Considered Chromosome Accidents Were Ordered Events 12445 The Transmission of Hereditary Traits - From Confusion to the Ability to Predict 12546 Mutation Has Been the Main Example of a Random Event 12747 How the Prevailing Fashion Led to Fashionable Results, or How Random Mutations Turned Out to be Non-Random 12848 Rearrangements that Were Random Events Turned Out to be Directed by Mobile Elements 13149 The Repeat Sequences of the Human Genome Are, Instead of Being "Junk," a Treasure Trove of Information 13350 Genes with Similar Functions Could Not be Located Nearby - Random Mutations and Rearrangements Would Disrupt Any Possible Order 13451 The Gene Turns Out to Consist of a Highly Ordered Procession of DNA Stations Locked by Well Defined Starting and Finishing Sites 13752 The Gene Is Never Alone 14153 The Periodic Packaging of DNA Along Chromosomes Has Turned Out to be Predictable 14254 In Cell Division the Proper Movement of Chromosomes Is Maintained by Correction of Improper Attachment to the Moving Apparatus 14355 Cells Sense and Stop Uncontrolled Divisions Released by Cancer Stimuli. Moreover, RNAs Are Able to Silence Genes 14556 Prevention of Failing of Chromosome Pairing and of Recombination 14857 Brownian Motion - The Trap of the Physicist and Biologist 15058 The Cell Was Seen as a Pea Soup, But Now Most of Its Molecules Are Known to Have an Address 15259 "The Genetic Code Is Certainly Not Random" 15560 Noise Is Disorder - Music Is Order and Unity 15661 The Distinction between Genetic Noise and Genetic Music 15762 "Errors" Are Not of All Possible Kinds 159References 160Sources of Illustrations 164Part IV Who Cares for Selection 16763 Selection Is a Political, Not a Scientific Concept 16964 Three Myths in Science: Phlogiston in Chemistry, Ether in Physics and Selection in Biology 17265 Definitions of Selection 17566 Selection Is Not a Material Component that Can be Measured 17767 The Distinction between Evolution and Darwinism 17868 The Merits and Limitations of Darwinism 18069 An Interpretation of Evolution Based on Physico-Chemical Processes 18170 How the Chromosome Evades Selection 18371 A Chaotic Chromosome Could Not Evade Selection But an Organized One Cannot Do Anything Else But Circumvent It 18472 The Chromosome Does Not Need Selection to Conserve, Innovate and Explore 18673 Repair Mechanisms Ensure the Maintenance of Order by Occurring at Different Molecular Levels - The Production of DNA, RNA and Protein Are Under Different Types of Control 18774 Without DNA Repair No Human Would Exist 18875 RNA Integrity Which is an Obligatory Condition for Normal Cell Function Is Maintained by Another Type of Repair 19176 RNA Surveillance - An Additional Mechanism that Improves Safety by Creating Quality Control 19377 "Molecular Chaperones" Are Proteins that Ensure that a Correct Molecular Assembly Will Predominate 19778 How to Confuse Evolutionists - The Correction Can Function Backwards, Ancestral RNAs Can Restore the Original DNA Sequence 19979 Innovation by Creation of New Gene Sequences 20180 Exploration Is Achieved by Change of Genetic Pathways into New Functional Alleys 20381 How Plasmids and Accessory Chromosomes Evade Selection 20582 There Are Genes Which Are Able to "Cheat" Natural Selection 20783 Sensing Mechanisms Are Used by the Chromosome to Adjust Gene Number and Switch on Genes That Improve Survival 20884 The Multitude of Protective Mechanisms Devised by the Chromosome "Prohibit Natural Selection" 21085 The Aggregation and Cell Adhesion of Dictyostelium Cells Follow the Same Chemical Solutions Employed by Embryos of Higher Organisms 21286 The Egg Is a Storehouse of Information, Prepared by the Mother's Chromosomes - This Guarantees the Formation of an Identical Body Pattern 21387 The Genetic Code Does Not Contain Direct Information to Produce a Coherent Organism - This Lies in the Hands of Other Molecular Processes that Charter Development by Building a Road Map 21588 Minute Cell RNAs, that Previously were Despised, Turn Out to Coordinate Messenger RNAs 21689 The Mechanisms Responsible for Coherence and Order Have Been Experimentally Demonstrated 21890 The Drastic Reshapings that Occur in the Embryo Are Directed by Specific Proteins 22091 Cells of One Group Change the Shape, Mitotic Rate and Pattern of Their Neighbors 22592 The Chromosome Has Made Sure that the Organism Not Only Protects Itself from Inner Errors But Also from Outer Enemies 22793 Cell Death Is as Programmed as Cell Life 22994 Cells Can Commit Suicide but Amoebae Are Potentially Immortal 23195 Both the Cell and the Chromosome Have an Unfailing Memory 23296 When King Louis XV of France Was Going to be Married, the Princess in Question Could Give Birth to Rabbits 23797 Why Should a Woman Not Produce a Mouse 239References 242Sources of Illustrations 249Part V Who Cares for Magnetism 25198 Magnetism and Electricity Are Two Manifestations of the Same Phenomenon 25399 Bacteria, Bees, and Pigeons Orient According to the Magnetic Field 257100 Cells Generate Electricity and Magnetism 260101 When Magnets Are Divided into Minor Pieces, Each Separate Unit Continues to Behave as a Magnet, Acquiring New North and South Poles, But Small Magnets Can Also Rebuild Large Ones 262102 When Fertilized Eggs Are Divided into Separate Cells, Each Cell Acquires the Properties of the Initial Egg Giving Rise to Separate Embryos 264103 Separate Embryos Which Are Fused Result in a Single Normal Organism 267104 When Chromosomes Are Divided into Minor Pieces, Each Separate Unit Continues to Behave as an Independent Chromosome by Incorporating or Creating New Telomeres and Centromeres 270105 The Same Chromosomes May Disassemble and Reassemble Maintaining Their Genetic Properties - A Deer Species May be Formed with 35 or Only 3 Chromosomes 272106 Ants May be Produced Using a Single Chromosome But Also 94 277107 Plants of the Same Genus Have Been Formed with 4 or 36 Chromosomes 279108 A Protozoan Can be Produced with 2 Chromosomes But Also with 500 280109 In Birds and Plants a Series of Minute Chromosomes Are an Obligatory Component of Their Chromosome Set 281110 The Separation of Chromosomes into Minor Units, as well as Their Reunion, Follows Well-Defined Solutions 283111 The Properties Shared by Magnets and Chromosomes May Have Their Origin in the Polarization Already Present at the DNA Level 286References 289Sources of Illustrations 292Part VI Biological Order Is the Product of Self-Assembly and Self-Assembly Is the Product of Atomic Recognition 295112 How Clocks and Other Machines Differ from Cells 297113 Definition of Self-Assembly and Its Basic Properties 299114 The Mechanism Responsible for Self-Assembly Is Independent of External Information 302115 The Self-Assembly of an Enzyme Is So Rapid that It Takes Less Time than the Synthesis of Its Component Polypeptides 305116 No One Believed in the Self-Assembling Capacity of Viruses 306117 The Bacterial Virus T4 Has a Programmed Pathway of Assembly that Has Been Described in the Utmost Detail 308118 The Self-Assembly of Ribosomes Has Been Obtained in the Test Tube 311119 Self-Assembly of the Chromosome Fiber and of Other Chromosome Structures Involved in Its Movement 313120 Single Sponge Cells Have the Information to Produce a Whole Organism 315121 A Hydra with Its Highly Complex Tissues can Self-Assemble from Dispersed Cells 316122 Dictyostelium Is an Impressive Example of the Cell's Organizing Capacity 318123 The Self-Assembly of Cells Leading to Tissue Formation Is Like the Precipitation of Crystals Out of a Solution 321124 The Unfailing Power and Accuracy Inherent to Self-Assembly - The Nuclear Envelope Has Reassembled with Precision during an Untold Number of Cell Divisions 323References 326Sources of Illustrations 330Part VII Where Did the Chromosome Come From and Where Is It Going 333125 "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" Paintings Which Represent the Origin of Life and of the Chromosome 335126 The Origin of the Cell and of the Chromosome Are not Known 339127 The Origins of the Chromosome Can Be Traced Back to the Periodicity of the Chemical Elements 342128 Anomalies Exist at the Level of Chemical Periodicity, but the Alternatives Are Already Limited 346129 The Unique Position in the Periodic Table of the Atoms Used in the Construction of the Cell and the Chromosome - So Far There Is No Evidence that Matter Suddenly Changed Its Laws When the Chromosome Emerged 348130 Evolutionary Decisions Which Were Made Before DNA Arrived on the Scene 351131 The Role of DNA in Heredity Is Not as Powerful as We Tend to Believe 356132 The Whole Human Genome May Be Packed into a Single Chromosome 359133 Where Is the Chromosome Going? 360134 Physics Is Still an Underdeveloped Science, but It May Hold the Key to the Understanding of Chromosome Behavior 362References 367Sources of Illustrations 370Simplified Glossary 373Acknowledgements 378Name Index 379Subject Index 389