which one of the following systems has the highest entropy

Which one of the following systems has the highest entropy free#

This process is performed in an irreversible manner as a direct result of the central dogma of molecular biology. On the other hand, the more comprehensive and physical view of thermodynamics tells us to offset this entropy reduction the process needs a large amount of energy provided by the hydrolysis of ATP, which in general leads to an overall increase of entropy in the biological system and its environment (to learn more about these views please refer to ). ĭuring the process of protein synthesis, from the view of information theory, the entropy of amino acids is reduced compared to the entropy value for the corresponding DNA sequence that codes for this protein. Cell death becomes evident in the destruction of structures and functions that cause continuous entropy production, which is consistent with the second law of thermodynamics that predicts a spontaneous tendency to increase entropy in closed systems. Hence, entropy change can be used as a prognostic tool providing a measure of malignancy. For example, entropy has been used to demonstrate that cancer cells cannot decrease entropy to the same extent as healthy cells. Entropy in the context of data related to biological systems is increasingly being applied in investigations associated with health and disease. Entropy-based analyses, which can help reduce time and cost, are also useful in developing computational drug discovery methods. It provides a quantitative measure of biological energetics and enables assessment of the amount of disorder in processes taking place in living organisms and within their functional components. Within the limits of the second law of thermodynamics we propose a framework to estimate the optimal cell size at division.Įntropy is an important concept first defined in thermodynamics and developed in statistical mechanics but also applied outside physics including the biological sciences, where it has been used to explain various problems ranging from intracellular considerations to the biosphere.

Which one of the following systems has the highest entropy free#

The amount of entropy reduction will increase with cell growth and eventually makes the free energy variations of the protein synthesis positive (that is, forbidden thermodynamically). Our calculations show that protein synthesis involves a considerable amount of entropy reduction due to polymerization of amino acids depending on the cytoplasmic volume of the cell. This result is obtained based on the free energy balance equation of protein synthesis and the second law of thermodynamics. Here, using a new approach that could be used for most of unicellular species, we show that the protein synthesis and cell size are interconnected biophysically and that protein synthesis may be the chief mechanism in establishing size limitations of unicellular organisms. The underlying mechanism determining the size of a particular cell is one of the fundamental unknowns in cell biology.