Selectivity in the service of man

Abstract

Throughout the countless millenia of evolution and under the strong pressure of natural selection, nature has evolved many small, highly selective molecules to make the cell work. These natural agonists†govern its nutrition, growth, and reproduction. Examples are the vitamins, coenzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters, inorganic ions, pigments (respiratory and photosynthetic), and metabolic fragments, such as acetyl. The most remarkable, because the most highly conserved, of all agonists are the polyaza-heterocycles: (a) adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which stores the energy provided by the breakdown of nutrients and releases it on demand, (b) the purine and pyrimidine bases of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) which encode all information for regulating the cell’s moment-to-moment metabolism as well as defining its individuality and heredity, and (c) pteridines of the folic acid type which regulate the biosynthesis of purines and pyrimidines.

As in Charles Darwin’s immortal writings ‘Man’, as used here, embraces women (and children).