Tubes

One of the greatest misnomers of all times is the wording describing a “simple cell.” Discoveries in the arena of Biology over the last 50 years have revealed the truth that all cells, no matter how rudimentary we once thought they were are amazingly complex beyond description. This has been described as a Biological explosion or revolution.

We have discovered that DNA and in some cases RNA are information based systems, rather than just being the product of chemical attraction. What I mean by this is that nucleic acids function by means of a coding  information system labeled A,C,G,and T. It is the combining of these letters that send instructions, (much like blueprints) for building life essential proteins in the cell. We know that this is information based because there are no chemical bonding tendencies in these structures. In other words they do not naturally attract to each other by chemistry alone.

We have also discovered that not only do you need the proper building apparatus for protein construction, the sequences of assembly processes is also extremely important for life to exist. A common every day example to describe this would be if you are going to bake a cake, you know that the frosting is the last thing you put on. You can’t put the frosting in the batter and expect good results.

To even add to the complexity factors, there is also a deconstruction sequence of some structures that are only needed temporarily. It is this deconstruction that I would like to describe today.

Cells act like miniature factories. Not only do you have assembly line types of structures that build and arrange amino acids into proteins, there is an action of 3 dimensional folding  needed to complete this process. Then once a protein is built, you need to have transport capabilities to get the protein to its destination in a timely fashion.

These transport mechanisms in the cell act much like an overhead conveyor belt that you would find in a factory. Another descriptor would be like going to a drive up at your local bank and use a vacuum tube to send money or deposits to the teller inside the bank.

The cell actually builds these type of tube structures that provide transportation of essential proteins to their proper destination. After the proteins reach their target, a very serious problem arises. That problem is the tubes themselves. They were needed for the transport, but now they are in the way. If they stay in place, they will actually kill the cell. The reason for this is that their structure is rigid. This is bad because the cell needs a certain amount of flexibility to survive. Therefore, in order to survive, the cell must deconstruct or tear down the tube.

 These complex processes of construction and deconstruction combine together in a perfect sequence that is essential for every cell to exist .This is truly phenomenal! How could all of these processes be the product of random, non-guided actions?