ABSTRACT
There are, however, in living matter two types of compounds that are far more informative than any other characters, namely certain kinds of nucleic acids and their products, the proteins. These are the specific constituents just mentioned of which morphological characteristics are an overall expression. Nucleic acid molecules contain the coded information that is used, in collaboration with the internal and external environment, for making an organism what it is. Proteins are transcripts of this information, and they are produced and carry out their functions so as to confer on an organism all of its properties in response to the environment.
