THE KINETIC STRUCTURE OF ORGANISMS

SUMMARY The specific properties of an organism arise from its catalytic constitution. In particular, the enzymatic part catalyzes the production of specific end products. Within the organism enzymes never act in isolation but are coupled in groups by the substrates they share. Many of the effects of environmental variation are buffered out by properties of the system arising from the interactions of the enzymatic steps. Furthermore, the kinetic analysis of open systems shows that within such groups, called Rheons, the catalytic activity is of negligible importance within wide limits of its values. Consequently much genic variation can occur without being reflected in the phenotype. These systemic properties are necessary kinetic consequences of enzyme systems and not properties of any one entity. A second set of interactions is between the catalytic Constitution and the boundary conditions. The latter are often vested in pre-existing states or structures which are inherited autonomously and which may equally contribute to the specification of the organism.