From inanimate molecules to living cells:: The informational scaffolding of life

Both the traditional lack of a unifying approach to informational phenomena in biology and the recent growth of numerous bioinformatic subdisciplines at the interface between biology and computer sciences pave the way for reconsidering the special relationship between information and life. Bioinformation, it will be argued here, should be developed as an integrative scheme in order to characterize the scaffolding of molecular-informational processes on which these new scientific-technological fields are focusing, and on which the organization of the living cell itself is based. In this work, starting out from concepts of the 'molecular recognition' field, which provides a unitary framework to analyze any further molecular-biological processes, the fundamental distinction between sequential and amorphous informational architectures is emphasized -DNA and RNA worlds versus diluted enzymes and proteins. The dynamic, functional overlapping of both classes of informational architectures, particularly taking into account the protein degradation phenomenon, appears at the very center of cellular functioning. The whole structures of the living cell participate in an orchestrated,evanescent permanence', actually striking an adjustable balance between production and degradation, from which biological adaptability emerges. Subsequently, along the eukaryotic evolution of multicellularity, a scaffolding of informational inventions -i.e., selector genes and cellular signaling systems-has made possible the development and differentiation of a variety of adaptable tissues. In the light of adaptability theory developed by Michael Conrad, a special interrelationship between some of the bioinformatic functional 'omes' would underly the adaptability of each tissue. The resulting adaptive tradeoff between biological functionalities may clarify the intriguing physiological 'shielding' of neuronal tissues in advanced nervous systems. The adaptability tradeoff also provides hints on the background of molecular-informational processes underlying the biological evolution of consciousness.