Scientist proposed viewing the genetic code not as a static “instruction” determining the functioning of organisms, but as a dynamic process of the generation of meaning and signs — semiosis. Within this approach, the “letters” (signs) in the DNA molecule acquire meaning only after passing through a series of biochemical operations, much as words gain a particular sense by being combined within a specific sentence. Such a perspective on the genetic code makes it possible to better understand the processes of information transmission that underlie life. The results of the study, supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), were published in the journal BioSystems.
To describe processes associated with DNA, numerous terms borrowed from philology are used: “letters” (DNA nucleotides), “transcription” (the written representation of sounds and, at the same time, the reading of genetic information from DNA), “synonym” (in the context of synonymous codons—triplets of DNA nucleotides that denote the same thing), and others. For a long time, these terms were merely convenient analogies, and biologists did not attach special importance to their original meaning.
Earlier, Suren Zolyan, a scientist from IKBFU, proposed a model in which the genetic code is regarded as a language with its own alphabet, grammar, and vocabulary. This approach made it possible to describe how the building blocks of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) and proteins are transformed into a meaningful instruction for the construction and functioning of a living organism.
In the new study, the researcher focused on
the process by which signs and their meanings emerge during the reading of genetic information. The author analyzed the processes of DNA duplication (replication), transcription (reading RNA molecules from DNA), and translation (protein synthesis according to the instruction recorded in RNA). At the same time, each stage was considered not as a simple set of biochemical reactions, but as a sequence of semiotic acts — processes of creating, transmitting, and transforming signs and meanings.
Within this framework, a triplet of nucleotides — a codon — in DNA acquires meaning (which is reflected in the amino acid it denotes) only after passing through an entire cascade of transformations. Biochemically, it is the reading of the “letters” of DNA and RNA according to the principles of complementarity, that is, correspondence akin to a key and a lock, as is commonly understood. But there is also an additional dimension — as a code based on differences in the number of hydrogen bonds (two or three) and carbon nuclei (one or two) in a nucleotide. In this way, the nucleotide functions as a binary unit of information. At the same time, the “letter” (nucleotide) in itself has no meaning, since its significance depends on its position within the “word” (codon) and the context.
The key innovation was a reinterpretation of the role of transfer RNAs (tRNAs) — molecules that deliver amino acids to the ribosome (the “factory” for protein synthesis), which are then assembled into chains. The researcher described the stages of tRNA functioning in terms of the creation and transmission of information. Initially, tRNA is “empty” — it is ready for work but has not yet attached an amino acid. Then it becomes “charged” and begins to carry information, that is, it becomes a sign. When the complex of transport RNA and amino acid interacts with the ribosome, the tRNA becomes a complex two-level sign: one sign (codon–anticodon) is embedded in another (tRNA–amino acid). After the amino acid detaches and becomes part of a new protein, the tRNA once again returns to its original “non-informative” state.
Thus, signs are not stored in genes as something given once and for all, but are constantly “born” and “die” in the course of operations with the genetic code. It is precisely this process that the author regards as semiosis in molecular biology, and it is this process that may be considered prototypical, including in relation to language.
| An examination of semiotic relations and operations in genetic encoding makes it possible to reconsider the established understanding of the sign as something constant, necessarily linked to a specific object. The proposed concept allows for a broader view of sign production (semiosis) as an inherent property of systems that govern information processes not only in biology, but also in the sphere of “human–artificial intelligence” interaction, |
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says the project’s principal researcher, Leading Research Fellow at the Institute of Education and Humanities of IKBFU, Suren Zolyan. |
| In the future, we plan to extend this approach to the domain of processes controlling gene activity. This includes extensive sets of signaling molecules, signal motifs in regulatory regions of genes, and cascades of signal transmission from outside the cell down to the level of switching target genes on and off, to which these signals are ultimately directed. Thus, notable interdisciplinary generalisations await us, |
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concludes the Project Leader, Senior Research Fellow at the Laboratory of Evolutionary Modeling of the IEPhB RAS (I. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry), Alexander Spirov. |
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