Thermodynamics meets information in copolymerization processes

Copolymers are natural supports of information. This latter is contained in the sequence of monomeric units composing every copolymer. A well-known example is DNA in biology. At the molecular scale, the growth of a single copolymer is stochastic and proceeds by successive random attachments or detachments of monomers continuously supplied by the surrounding solution. The thermodynamics of copolymerization with or without a template shows that fundamental links exist between entropy production and the information content of the copolymer sequence [1,2]. During depolymerization, this information is erased in a way compatible with Landauer's principle [3]. These advances open new perspectives to understand information transmission during DNA replication and, more generally, information processing at the molecular scale in biology and polymer science. \\[4pt] [1] D. Andrieux and P. Gaspard, Nonequilibrium generation of information in copolymerization processes, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105, 9516 (2008). \\[0pt] [2] D. Andrieux and P. Gaspard, Molecular information processing in nonequilibrium copolymerizations, J. Chem. Phys. 130, 014901 (2009). \\[0pt] [3] D. Andrieux and P. Gaspard, Information erasure in copolymers, EPL 103, 30004 (2013).