Two-factor models, neural nets and biochemical automata

Abstract

It is shown that recent models for the regulation of macromolecular synthesis in cells can be described in terms of a two-factor theory. Models for differentiation can then be described as networks of two-factor elements. Thus these models are analogous to models which have for many years been used to describe properties of peripheral nerve and the central nervous system, in the sense that they are both realizations of the same mathematical formalism. The relationship of two-factor elements to McCulloch-Pitts neurons is reviewed, and in view of the resulting equivalence between two-factor nets and McCulloch-Pitts networks, the concept of “molecular automaton” in regulation and differentiation is precisely defined.