Template principle in biology

Abstract

N.V. Timofeev-Ressovsky made a decisive contribution to the template principle, offered by his teacher, N.K. Koltsov. Idea of “covariant reduplication” of Timofeev-Ressovsky embraced inheritance and variation in terms of replication DNA of genetic material as a template process. Later on F.Crick included in the template principle processes of genes expression through transcription and translation in his Central Dogma of Molecular Biology. Replication, transcription, translation as the first order template processes (TP I) operating with their universal characteristics (ambiguity and repair, or correction) should be considered along with the second order template processes (TP II), operating with spatial, or conformational templates. The attention to the former ones had been stimulated at the end of XX century by the study of prions and amyloids. Comparative characteristics of the TP I and TP II and of their interaction are discussed.