Insight Into Cellular Consciousness
Bruce H. Lipton, PhD
Stanford University’s School of Medicine
Stanford University’s School of Medicine
"The primacy of DNA in influencing and regulating biological behavior and evolution is based upon an unfounded assumption. A seminal article by H. F. Nijhout (BioEssays 1990, 12 (9):441-446) describes how concepts concerning genetic “controls” and “programs” were originally conceived as metaphors to help define and direct avenues of research.
The notion that the nucleus and its genes are the “brain” of the cell is an untenable and illogical hypothesis. If the nucleus truly represented the brain of the cell, then removal of the nucleus would result in the cessation of cell functions and immediate cell death.
However, experimentally enucleated cells may survive for two or more months with out genes, and yet are capable of effecting complex responses to environmental and cytoplasmic stimuli
Studies on cloned human cells led me to the awareness that the cell’s plasmalemma, commonly referred to as the cell membrane, represents the cell’s “brain.” Cell membranes, the first biological organelle to appear in evolution, are the only organelle common to every living organism.
For most of the last fifty years, the membrane was perceived as a “passive,” semi-permeable barrier, resembling a breathable “plastic wrap,” whose function was to simply contain the cytoplasm.
Membrane IMPs can be functionally subdivided into two classes: receptors and effectors. Receptors are input devices that respond to environmental signals. Effectors are output devices that activate cellular processes
Receptors are molecular “antennas” that recognize environmental signals. Some receptor antennas extend inward from the membrane’s cytoplasmic face. These receptors “read” the internal milieu and provide awareness of cytoplasmic conditions. Other receptors extending from the cell’s outer surface provide awareness of external environmental signals.
Putting all the pieces together we are provide with insight as to how the cell’s “brain” processes information and elicits behavior.
The cell membrane is an organic information processor. It senses the environment and converts that awareness into “information” that can influence the activity of protein pathways and control the expression of the genes."
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The notion that the nucleus and its genes are the “brain” of the cell is an untenable and illogical hypothesis. If the nucleus truly represented the brain of the cell, then removal of the nucleus would result in the cessation of cell functions and immediate cell death.
However, experimentally enucleated cells may survive for two or more months with out genes, and yet are capable of effecting complex responses to environmental and cytoplasmic stimuli
Studies on cloned human cells led me to the awareness that the cell’s plasmalemma, commonly referred to as the cell membrane, represents the cell’s “brain.” Cell membranes, the first biological organelle to appear in evolution, are the only organelle common to every living organism.
For most of the last fifty years, the membrane was perceived as a “passive,” semi-permeable barrier, resembling a breathable “plastic wrap,” whose function was to simply contain the cytoplasm.
Membrane IMPs can be functionally subdivided into two classes: receptors and effectors. Receptors are input devices that respond to environmental signals. Effectors are output devices that activate cellular processes
Receptors are molecular “antennas” that recognize environmental signals. Some receptor antennas extend inward from the membrane’s cytoplasmic face. These receptors “read” the internal milieu and provide awareness of cytoplasmic conditions. Other receptors extending from the cell’s outer surface provide awareness of external environmental signals.
Putting all the pieces together we are provide with insight as to how the cell’s “brain” processes information and elicits behavior.
The cell membrane is an organic information processor. It senses the environment and converts that awareness into “information” that can influence the activity of protein pathways and control the expression of the genes."
Continue Reading - Click Here