Genonema

a long, thread-shaped protein molecule (or a fascicle of them), which, according to the model that was put forth in 1928 by the Soviet biologist N. K. Kol’tsov, is the basis of the chromosome and the bearer of genetic information. Radicals of the genonema were considered genes, and the atomic changes in the protein molecule were viewed as the causes of mutations. After the discovery of the role of deoxyribonucleic acid, this model became outdated, but the assumption concerning the capacity of the chromosome for self-replication, which was advanced by Kol’tsov during the construction of the model, has been corroborated by subsequent research.