Erwin Schroedinger, Francis Crick and epigenetic stability

Schroedinger's book 'What is Life?' is widely credited for having played a crucial role in development of molecular and cellular biology. My essay revisits the issues raised by this book from the modern perspective of epigenetics and systems biology. I contrast two classes of potential mechanisms of epigenetic stability: 'epigenetic templating' and 'systems biology' approaches, and consider them from the point of view expressed by Schroedinger. I also discuss how quantum entanglement, a nonclassical feature of quantum mechanics, can help to address the 'problem of small numbers' that lead Schroedinger to promote the idea of molecular code-script for explanation of stability of biological order.Comment: New and improved version of the essay, now published in the online journal 'Biology Direct'. Contains more expanded discussion on entanglement. 18 pages, 2 figures. The file includes open reviews by E.Koonin, V.Vedral and E.Karsent

Epigenetics: What it is about?

Epigenetics has captured the attention of scientists in the past decades, yet its scope has been continuously changing. In this paper, we give an overview on how and why its definition has evolved and suggest several clarification on the concepts used in this field, in particular, on the notions of epigenetic information, epigenetic stability and epigenetic templating. Another issue that we address is the role of epigenetic information. Not only it is important in allowing alternative interpretations of genetic information, but it appears to be important in protecting the genetic information, moreover, we suggest that this function appeared first in evolution and only later on the epigenetic mechanisms were recruited to play a role in cell differentiation.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Oligoribonuclease is a common downstream target of lithium-induced pAp accumulation in Escherichia coli and human cells

We identified Oligoribonuclease (Orn), an essential Escherichia coli protein and the only exonuclease degrading small ribonucleotides (5mer to 2mer) and its human homologue, small fragment nuclease (Sfn), in a screen for proteins that are potentially regulated by 3′-phosphoadenosine 5′-phosphate (pAp). We show that both enzymes are sensitive to micromolar amounts of pAp in vitro. We also demonstrate that Orn can degrade short DNA oligos in addition to its activity on RNA oligos, similar to what was documented for Sfn. pAp was shown to accumulate as a result of inhibition of the pAp-degrading enzyme by lithium, widely used to treat bipolar disorder, thus its regulatory targets are of significant medical interest. CysQ, the E.coli pAp-phosphatase is strongly inhibited by lithium and calcium in vitro and is a main target of lithium toxicity in vivo. Our findings point to remarkable conservation of the connection between sulfur- and RNA metabolism between E.coli and humans