Biocommunication

Biocommunication in Soil Microorganisms

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 07:29:43 +0200

Communication is defined as an interaction between at least two living agents which share a repertoire of signs. These are combined according to syntactic, semantic and context-dependent, pragmatic rules in order to coordinate behavior. This volume deals with the important roles of soil bacteria in parasitic and symbiotic interactions with viruses, plants, animals and fungi. Starting with a general overview of the key levels of communication between bacteria, further reviews examine the various aspects of intracellular as well as intercellular biocommunication between soil microorganisms.

Logos of the bios 1

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 14:31:14 +0200

Contributions to the foundation of a three-leveled biosemiotics This approach underlines the complementarity of syntactic, pragmatic and semantic rules as a precondition for adequately investigating the language- like structure of the genetic code and the communicative organization of interacting cellular organisms. Guenther Witzany, Helsinki. Umweb, 220 pp. (2006)

Natural Genetic Engineering and Natural Genome Editing

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:42:24 +0200

The recent literature on whole genome sequences provides abundant evidence for the action of natural genetic engineering in evolution. Discoveries about natural genetic engineering have coincided with rapid progress in our understanding of epigenetic control and RNA-directed chromatin formation.

Biocommunication and Natural Genome Editing

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:44:13 +0200

This is is the first uniform description of all key levels of communication in the organismic kingdoms of plants, fungi, animals and bacteria based on the most recent empirical data. Biocommunication occurs on three levels (A) intraorganismic, i.e. intra- and intercellular, (B) interorganismic, between the same or related species and (C) transorganismic, between organisms which are not related. The biocommunicative approach demonstrates both that cells, tissues, organs and organisms coordinate and organize by communication processes and genetic nucleotide sequence order in cellular and non-cellular genomes is structured language-like, i.e. follow combinatorial (syntactic), context-sensitive (pragmatic) and content-specific (semantic) rules. Without sign-mediated interactions no vital functions within and between organisms can be coordinated. Exactly this feature is absent in non-living matter.

Discovering the cellular toolbox...

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:35:55 +0200

T4 Bacteriophage (DNA virus) Image copyright Dennis Kunkel Microscopy, Inc.

Over the past several years, the concept of natural genetic engineering > has been advanced to encompass biochemical functions that make up the cellular toolbox for changing genome sequence composition and organization. Natural genetic engineering activities range from the introduction of point mutations by mutator polymerases to large-scale chromosome rearrangements mediated by transposable elements and non-homologous end-joining to incorporation of viral and microbial DNA into the genomes of host organisms.

The Logos of the Bios 2

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:00:00 +0200

"Glance at Witzany's little book and put it beside standard texts on semio-communication written by those who still favour mechanistic causality in exploring animal behaviour and you can see how far Biosemiotics has come" (Peter Harries-Jones, University of Toronto)

What's going on?

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 09:10:00 +0200

Listeria spp. Bacteriophage (DNA virus) Image copyright Dennis Kunkel Microscopy, Inc.

To know the âmolecular syntaxâ (Manfred Eigen) of the genetic sequences of organisms doesnât mean to know all âmultiple protein meaningsâ (Gil Ast) that derive from a great variety of higher-order regulatory functions hidden in the non-protein-coding DNA. The network of higher-order regulatory functions and its important role to the key processes in DNA replication and recombination is now being recognized as a complex hierarchical pattern. This includes also the highly dynamic patterns of genome formatting as prerequisite to the great variety of epigenetic processes as demonstrated by Randy Jirtle at the Biosemiotic Congress 2006 in Salzburg.

Paul Bains: The Primacy of Semiosis...

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:15:51 +0200

Paul Bains (2006). The Primacy of Semiosis: An Ontology of Relations. (Toronto Studies in Semiotics and Communication). Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press. 186 pp.; ISBN 10: 0-8020-9003-6, ISBN 13:978-0-8020-9003-4.

The conditions on the surface of a planet without living organisms are determined entirely by the sun's energy and the laws of physics and chemistry, as James Lovelock showed convincingly (Margulis, 1999).
A planet with living organisms deviates considerably from this scheme. The gas composition and temperature will vary in a manner that cannot be predicted exclusively by the laws of physics and chemistry alone. Such a planet contains incompatible gas mixtures and temperatures whose relatively stable balance is actively controlled by organisms...

Itâs life, but just as we know it

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:53:49 +0200

â¦to decide who is first in the ârace to create lifeâ requires a consensus definition of life
Both the genetic code and all computerprogramming languages are means of communicating large quantities of codified information, which adds another element to a comprehensive definition of life.

Language and communication

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 07:02:36 +0200

...from linguistic turn to pragmatic turn

For more than 10 years, most biological disciplines have increasingly been referring to âcommunicationâ and âlanguageâ in describing and explaining interactions in and between cells, between tissues and organs, whole bodies, organisms, species-specific and trans-species interactions. The influence of a linguistic vocabulary is omnipresent and has become irreplaceable. This calls for an up-to-date definition of âlanguageâ and âcommunicationâ if we are to avoid using these terms in an uncritical, unreflected or merely metaphorical manner.