Abstract
The relational phenomena exhibited by metabolizing systems may be considered as special cases of those exhibited by a more general class of systems. This class is specified, and some of tis properties developed. An attempt is then made to apply these properties to a theory of metabolism by suitable specialization. A number of biologically significant theorems are obtained which apply directly to the theory of the free-living single cell. Among the results obtained are the following: On the basis of our model, there must always exist a component of the system which cannot be replaced or repaired by the system in the event of its inhibition or destruction. Under certain conditions, a metabolizing system possesses a component the inhibition of which will completely terminate the metabolic activity of the system. Furthermore a number of other diverse phenomena, such as the effects of a deficient environment, encystment phenomena, and even an indication of why a metabolizing system which represents a cell should possess a nucleus, follow in a straightforward fashion from our model.
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Rosen, R. A relational theory of biological systems. Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 20, 245–260 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02478302
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02478302