Abstract
A NEW class of reactions, with no counterpart in organic chemistry, has been elucidated in recent years in biological systems; it comprises the template-directed polymerizations of nucleic acids and amino-acids. Results of the intensive work in this area of polymer biochemistry indicate that these reactions involve two concurrent events at each step in polymerization. A free derivative of the monomer specifically complements with the template, and, in the presence of a suitable catalyst, when adjacent to the terminal monomer of a growing chain this is followed by a non-specific coupling reaction. Configuration order, in the form of specified linear arrays of monomers, is thereby recovered from the energy entropy expended in polymerization1. This derived order is not transmutable to free energy, nor is the total entropy subject to restriction by the second law of thermodynamics according to Davis. The balance of entropies attained in polydeoxy-ribonucleic acid synthesis has been evaluated in this report, so far as present data will permit such an analysis; and based on what is at present known of these processes, reaction schemes have been devised that aim at maximizing the diminution of configuration entropy.
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