POLYMER GENOMICS

The central dogma of molecular biology governs the transfer of sequence information between biopolymers. It is correct as far as it goes. But it assumes — without stating the assumption — that sequence information is the only kind that matters. The molecule carrying those sequences is also a physical object, and this site computes its material properties genome-wide for the first time.

DNA is not a tape. It is a heteropolymer — a chain of monomers with position-dependent physical-chemical properties. Every base pair has a stacking energy, a melting temperature, an intrinsic curvature, a flexibility. An AT-rich region and a GC-rich region are, in the language of polymer physics, different materials.

This makes two information channels on one molecule. The symbolic channel maps codons to amino acids — the information system whose transfer rules the central dogma defines, operating on ~1.5% of the genome. The material channel maps sequence to a continuous energy surface — self-executing, requiring no decoder, operating on 100% of the genome. The central dogma is silent about this channel.

The material channel is physically prior. Naked DNA in a test tube already has its energy surface — no ribosome, no polymerase, no cell required. It predates the genetic code by billions of years. And it determines, through the Boltzmann distribution, which regions of the genome the symbolic channel can access.