Flipons are a Dynamic Way to Code the Genome (IMAGE)
Caption
The figure captures the transition between left-handed Z-DNA and right-handed B-DNA. Z-DNA formation requires energy that is results from negative supercoiling produced by the action of an RNA Polymerase (Pol). The energy needed is lowered by certain base modifications. The cycle is completed by relaxing Z-DNA to B-DNA through the action of a topoisomerase that releases the negative supercoils (Top). The equation ΔE=kΔI captures the trade-off between metabolic and informational entropy (where E=entropy and I= Shannon Information and k = Boltzmann's constant scaled appropriately). The cycle is an example of a dissipative structure as described by Prigogine in his Nobel Prize Lecture.
Credit
Alan Herbert
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