Posted on 05/19/2010 4:30:38 AM PDT by wendy1946
Breakthrough: Second Genetic Code Revealed 05/06/2010 May 06, 2010 — It’s sometimes difficult to assess the impact of a scientific paper when it is first published, but one that came out on the cover of Nature today has potential to equal the discovery of the genetic code. The leading science journal reported the discovery of a second genetic code – the “code within the code” – that has just been cracked by molecular biologists and computer scientists. Moreover, they used information technology – not evolutionary theory – to figure it out. The new code is called the Splicing Code. It lives embedded within the DNA. It directs the primary genetic code, in very complex but now predictable ways, how and when to assemble genes and regulatory elements. Cracking this code-within-a-code is helping elucidate several long-standing mysteries about genetics that emerged from the Human Genome Project: Why are there only 20,000 genes for an organism as complex as a human being? (Scientists had expected far more.) Why are genes broken up into segments (called exons), separated by non-coding elements (called introns), and then spliced together after transcription? And why are genes turned on in some cells and tissues, but not in others? For two decades molecular biologists have been trying to figure out the mechanisms of genetic regulation. This important paper represents a milestone in understanding what goes on. It doesn’t answer all the questions, but it shows that an inner code exists – a communication system that can be deciphered so clearly, that the scientists could predict what the genome would do in certain situations with uncanny accuracy. Imagine hearing an orchestra in an adjacent room. You open the door and look inside, and find just three or four musicians producing all that sound. That’s what co-discoverer Brendan Frey said said the human genome is like. We could only find 20,000 genes, but we knew that a vast array of protein products and regulatory elements were being produced. How? One method is alternative splicing. Different exons (gene elements) can be assembled together in different ways. “For example, three neurexin genes can generate over 3,000 genetic messages that help control the wiring of the brain,” Frey said. The paper explains right off the bat that 95% of our genes are known to have alternative splicing, and in most cases, the transcripts are expressed differently in different cell and tissue types. Something must control how those thousands of combinations are assembled and expressed. That’s the job of the Splicing Code...
Long article, worth the read. The odds against anything like this "evolving" of course, should be fairly obvious.
“Moreover, they used information technology – not evolutionary theory – to figure it out.”
It’s called bioinformatics and is often use to compare genetic predecessors and cross-species phylogeny.
The splicing code in humans was created by big blue-headed aliens from the planet Glomplin. They exist only to inteligently design things. Ironically, they are giant single-celled, intelligent, blue-green algae that evolved quickly from a non-living primordial soup. Their design for humans was created to eventually produce a Charles Darwin so he would explain to us that everything, even things that appear “inteligently designed”, are the result of the laws of physics and natural selection.
“The odds against anything like this “evolving” of course, should be fairly obvious.”
To whom? Not to me. “Fairly obvious” to me is when I eat the super sized pepperoni pizza before I go to bed and wake up with a stomach ache. This stuff is way beyond my understanding of biology or evolutionary theory.
I guess you’re saying it’s fairly obvious for those people who are specialists in the field, right? Then I guess they must be abandoning Darwinian theory left and right. I’ll be watching the news.
“The odds against anything like this “evolving” of course, should be fairly obvious.”
Or the ability to evolve in this manner was built into life by the creator.
“You say you are ignorant, but in the end we find out you really do know it all!”
I am still waiting for the front page stories saying that the theory of evolution has been disproved. Have I missed something?
I'd be curious if anybody could actually read through this one and still think all of this stuff could just sort of happen or "evolve"...
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