On the origin of biological systems and the role of poly-nucleotides -- the initiation of evolution, the structural basis of the genetic code and the mechanism of protein biosynthesis

On the chemical and structural basis of membrane transducer and receptor systems

Evolution was based initially on polynucleotide systems. From these there developed the polynucleotide-based protein biosynthetic system. Membrane transducers are required by the most primitive cells and must have appeared at a very early stage. They would therefore also be expected to involve polynucleotides. There is substantial biochemical evidence for polynucleotide involvement in membrane transducers. There does not appear to be any reasonable alternative. Many biologically active substances show good matching to a polynucleotide receptor site that gives a good account of receptor function. There appears then to be no doubt that polynucleotides provide the basis of membrane transducers.

The structural basis of biological systems -- on the structures of transfer RNA and DNA and on some biological consequences

Tetrahelix polynucleotide structure is important in biological systems. Though it is disputed there is firm evidence that transfer RNA has a tetrahelix structure and has the form of a simple cylinder. There is overwhelming chemical, biochemical and sequence evidence and the structure satisfies the constraints of the unit cell lattice. Tetrahelix structure also occurs in DNA and appears to be the most stable form and in many cases the naturally occurring form under physiological conditions. The consequences of tetrahelix structure clarify some longstanding problems such as the physical basis of supertwisting and of compact structure.