Scientists Vie To Break Junk DNA's Secret Code

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | Roger Highfield

[blam]

Scientists vie to break junk DNA's secret code

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 06/10/2003)

Huge tracts of human DNA, previously written off as meaningless junk, have been found to contain a hitherto unrecognised "genetic grammar", making the language of our genes much more complex than previously thought.

The discovery is of potentially huge significance, since it could lead to an entirely new explanation for certain diseases and symptoms. A race is now on among teams of scientists worldwide to investigate this cryptic code.

While the genetic recipe of a human being is spelt out with three billion letters of DNA code, only about two per cent of these correspond to the genes - the DNA that describes the proteins that build and operate bodies.

In the latest issue of the journal Science, Prof Stylianos Antonarakis of the University of Geneva Medical School, Dr Ewen Kirkness of the Institute of Genomic Research, Maryland, and colleagues have reported compelling evidence that up to three per cent of our genetic material has a crucial role that is not understood.

They made the unexpected discovery that some DNA regions of humans, dogs and species as distant as elephant and wallaby are nearly identical. These regions of what were once called junk have been dubbed "conserved non-genic sequences", or CNGs, a reference to how they are not conventional genes.

Prof Antonarakis said: "I suspect that mutations in CNGs may contribute to numerous genetic disorders." Defects in CNGs could result in illness while the symptoms of Down's syndrome, caused by an extra copy of a chromosome, might be linked to the presence of additional CNGs.

"Many laboratories are now working on identifying pathogenic mutations," he said.

[f.Christian]

Science is fact - LAWS ... evolution is shop - slop talk from hell !

Even social science has more credibility than evolution - ANARCHY - hype ... liberal spin --- lies !

[Ogmios]

By the way, I am an engineer, I know exactly what you are talking about, I have to make assumptions that indeed that things are facts.

Ohms law, I take it as fact because it works for me, heat ratios of components etc, amount of power each component will take, how to isolate them and that each component will do exactly what I expect of them, but this not science, this is engineering, a science within itself, I will admit, but it is not natural sciences.

You have missed the point totally, but I don't think that you want to get the point, so we will have to agree to disagree.

Facts are assumptions, based on very good empirical evidence that certain things will occur when you use certain materials etc. And 99.99% of the time, you are right, it's that .01% that is going to come out and bite you. As an engineer, I have to accept those assumptions as facts, but scientists do not. Do you understand the difference? I doubt it, but again, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

As an engineer, I also have a very high respect for Murphy's law. Overengineering is the name of the game, failures can and do happen, it is that .01% that you do your best to fight and design for.

[VadeRetro]

What is so humorous here is that these PHonies blamed it all on poor ALS...now he is gone and many others have left or disengaged...

"Gone ... left ... disengaged."

Such delicate euphemisms! Nobody's "gone." Nobody "left." Nobody "disengaged."

You mean "couldn't meet minimum standards of decent social behavior and were banned." ALS, Jesse Shurun, and goodseedhomeschool(returned). Banned.

To: goodseedhomeschool (returned)

You were warned, but continued attacking anyway. Your account is now permanently banned. Do not come back, you will be considered a trespasser.

365 posted on 10/06/2003 11:10 PM EDT by Jim Robinson (Conservative by nature... Republican by spirit... Patriot by heart... AND... ANTI-Liberal by GOD!)

Banned. That's what you meant to say. Couldn't behave like a toilet-trained human being.

Incredibly, the creepy stalkies still creep and stalk, imagining themselves one taunt, one Admin Moderator ping from scoring a kill.

[A. Pole]

Huge tracts of human DNA, previously written off as meaningless junk

Translation: In our arrogance we dismissed as meaningless that which we could not understand.

Exactly. And we will do it again.

[HalfFull]

Are you going to answer my question in #421

Sure, why not.

What is that, what does it mean to you? Ans: an annoying noise.

Are you frustrated? Ans: NO.

Are you upset? Ans: NO

Evidence, give me the evidence that has convinced you so utterly and completely that "scientific facts" exist. Ans: Not that I would want you to do so, but if were to jump off a ten story building, you would discover a scientific fact for yourself.

[Sentis]

As a followup to something Patrick Henry said. Don't bother to reply to anything fchristian posts. I'm not even sure he isn't some computer program designed to generate near meaningless snatches of sentences with an anti science base. When I first encountered him I tried to figure out if he spoke English but he has never posted something he actually typed. You will notice after awhile that his posts are cut and paste from a database he used to keep on his freerepublic profile. it may still be there i haven't looked recently.

[f.Christian]

Evolution (( opinions )) ... NO facts - design - laws --- they want to base America - education - FR --- on that GARBAGE!

[f.Christian]

The evo gods have spoken ... our overlords --- enlightened !

[Sentis]

See what I mean. I think I have sort of figured out how the program works. If you type the word "evolution" it creates a post by the fchristian bot. If you type its name it generates a post. I wonder what other hot button words will create a post by this bot. HMMMM

I have been sarcastic about this before but I really think it might be a bot the more I think about it.

[f.Christian]

Can't explain or discuss you religion - ideology so all you can hope for is to have people banned for your incompetence ... like we should worship you --- crybabies !

[js1138]

I recommend ieSpell. If you're paranoid, check it out at cnet.com. It allows you to spell check any text box on a browser form. You can tell the difference in my posts when I am using it.

[f.Christian]

Trained circus seals ... rote science --- a behaviorist dream come true --- dogs - conditioning !

[RightWingNilla]

I dunno... I took a biotech class that taught me some pretty fascinating stuff. For instance, have you heard of "knockout mice"? They "create" mice to have genes, or in this case, seemingly nonsense DNA excluded from it's genome. The results were fascinating.

Genetically engineered mice cost upwards of $100,000 to generate. There had to be a good reason the guys in this study had for knocking out that DNA. Do you know offhand more deatils?

Keep in most protein coding genes are knocked out in mice (individually) there in no phenotype. Redundancy is a feature of most genomes. Also the amount of DNA tells you nothing about the "complexity" of the organism. IIRC, ameoba has about 100X more DNA content per cell than humans.

[Sentis]

I generally dont need it but I type to fast many times and don't read over what I wrote.

[balrog666]

BTW I have not nor will I ever sign the agreement not to attack Creationists until they begin to answer the simple questions I ask of them. Until they are willing to be upfront about their beliefs especially those beliefs that are utterly ignorant and foolish I will continue to lambaste them. Defenders of real science on this board are doing themselves no favor what so ever to debate them. They are beneath debate because they are willing to lie, obfuscate, and duck any questions that they can't or wont answer. Instead of debate ask simple direct questions such as what is the age of the earth or universe?

I agree that they are beneath contempt. I have known ferns that were more perceptive.

[js1138]

I wasn't referring to the science expressed in post #14. I was presenting it to demonstrate the first instance of name calling on this thread. I count eight distinct names applied to evolutionists, ranging from stupid to killer.

[VadeRetro]

Can't explain or discuss you religion - ideology so all you can hope for is to have people banned for your incompetence ...

OK, I'll explain it again. Common descent. Variation, natural selection. Maybe throw in some neutral drift. That's enough to produce change as the environment changes. All the creationist objections are based on misunderstandings, intentional or otherwise, and straw-grasping invented difficulties.

[js1138]

Patrick is Number one on the DU hit list of folks they are trying to get banned. Careful what you ask him.

[Sentis]

I will go one further. The attitude that is shown by the christians on this board turns off most scientists. I work as an archaeologist and the number one reason why my coworkers are almost universally democrat is that they don't wish to be politically/philosophically linked to the religious right. The ignorance and total disregard for science turns off many people that actually are conservative. Many will never vote for conservative candidates because the religious right seems to be in a continual struggle to destroy science and learning.