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Category

‘Junk DNA’

Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 1, 2021
Categorized
'Junk DNA', Intelligent Design
Tagged
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Another job for “junk DNA”: Killing cancer in blind mole rats

Denyse O'Leary
October 1, 2021
'Junk DNA', Intelligent Design
Researcher: “The paper describes an important new mechanistic insight into the way one can trigger inflammatory signals in cancer cells to either kill them directly or make them vulnerable to cancer-killing therapies,” says cancer biologist Stephen Baylin of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who was not involved in the research. “The importance of it is really quite profound.” Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 24, 2021
Categorized
'Junk DNA', Intelligent Design, speciation
Tagged
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Researchers: “Junk DNA” plays a key role in speciation

Denyse O'Leary
August 24, 2021
'Junk DNA', Intelligent Design, speciation
At Phys.org: When the researchers deleted a protein called Prod that binds to a specific satellite DNA sequence in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the flies' chromosomes scattered outside of the nucleus into tiny globs of cellular material called micronuclei, and the flies died. "But we realized at this point that this [piece of] satellite DNA that was bound by the Prod protein was completely missing in the nearest relatives of Drosophila melanogaster," Jagannathan said. "It completely doesn't exist. So that's an interesting little problem." Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 15, 2021
Categorized
'Junk DNA', Intelligent Design, Religion
Tagged
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ENCODE foe Dan Graur isn’t sure if Jesus existed

Denyse O'Leary
August 15, 2021
'Junk DNA', Intelligent Design, Religion
Wow. Dr. Graur should get out more. Only crackpots argue that Jesus did not exist... There is less evidence for the existence of Socrates but no one gets all skeptical about him. Interesting responses. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 2, 2021
Categorized
'Junk DNA', Genomics, Intelligent Design
Tagged
,

The non-coding human genome is being filled in

Denyse O'Leary
August 2, 2021
'Junk DNA', Genomics, Intelligent Design
At Axios: Why it matters: The bulk of the human genome is noncoding regions, some of which play an important role in how genes are expressed. New tools are allowing scientists to test exactly how these elements — once called "junk DNA" — work, which could lead to new drug targets. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 27, 2021
Categorized
'Junk DNA', Ethics, Genetics
Tagged
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ID theorists were right about junk DNA. Now here is an ID prediction about CRISPR gene editing

Denyse O'Leary
July 27, 2021
'Junk DNA', Ethics, Genetics
William Dembski: The big question, then, is whether CRISPR gene editing will allow for huge improvements of human and other animal forms via genetic enhancements. My prediction is that it won’t. Specifically, I predict that attempted enhancements of the human germ line using CRISPR gene editing will (1) quickly hit an “enhancement boundary” beyond which enhancements are no longer feasible and (2) prove self-canceling in the sense that intended benefits will be undone by unintended deficits. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 24, 2021
Categorized
'Junk DNA', Human evolution, Intelligent Design
Tagged
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At Evolution News: “Junk DNA” needed for limb formation

Denyse O'Leary
May 24, 2021
'Junk DNA', Human evolution, Intelligent Design
At Nature: “A new study in Nature underscores just how important noncoding DNA can be for human development. The authors show that deletions in a noncoding region of DNA on chromosome 2 cause severe congenital limb abnormalities. This is the first time a human disease has been definitively linked to mutations in noncoding DNA, says lead author Stefan Mundlos, head of the development and disease research group at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, Germany.” Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 12, 2021
Categorized
'Junk DNA', Books of interest, Intelligent Design
Tagged
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Larry Moran’s new book sounds like a scorcher

Denyse O'Leary
May 12, 2021
'Junk DNA', Books of interest, Intelligent Design
He thinks there must be something “seriously wrong” with science if people keep looking for new functions for junk DNA. What’s “wrong,” so far as the rest of us can see, is that researchers keep finding new functions that formerly-junk DNA performs, so they keep looking. For the same reasons as fisherfolk return to the well-stocked lake. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 29, 2021
Categorized
'Junk DNA', Genomics, Intelligent Design
Tagged
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Project to map 70,000 vertebrate genomes already turning up more bad news for “junk DNA”

Denyse O'Leary
April 29, 2021
'Junk DNA', Genomics, Intelligent Design
Also: “The work revealed that the last surviving kākāpō population, isolated on an island off New Zealand for the last 10,000 years, has somehow purged deleterious mutations, despite the species' low genetic diversity.” Hmm. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 14, 2021
Categorized
'Junk DNA'
Tagged
, ,

Rob Sheldon on Larry Moran and the junk DNA

Denyse O'Leary
April 14, 2021
'Junk DNA'
Sheldon: If I recall correctly, the original definition of "functional" was whether that piece of DNA was turned into a protein, which depended on finding a "start" and a "stop" codon. The Human Genome Project reported that some 90% of the human genome didn't have these "start/stop" features, and hence was "non-functional". ["Non-functional" underwent considerable revision later.] Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 30, 2021
Categorized
'Junk DNA', Intelligent Design
Tagged
,

Discovery of useful “junk DNA” “has outstripped the discovery of protein-coding genes by a factor of five…

Denyse O'Leary
March 30, 2021
'Junk DNA', Intelligent Design
At Nature: "Likewise, the number of publications about such elements also grew in the period covered by our data set. For example, there are thousands of papers on non-coding RNAs, which regulate gene expression." We also learn the possible origin of the term "junk DNA." Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 29, 2021
Categorized
'Junk DNA', Intelligent Design
Tagged
,

Did beliefs about junk DNA hinder the Human Genome Project?

Denyse O'Leary
March 29, 2021
'Junk DNA', Intelligent Design
But wasn’t a vast pile of junk DNA supposed to be one of the Great Proofs of Darwinism in the DNA? Funny, no one suggests that the constant diminution of the pile is evidence against the theory that its presence was supposed to be evidence for. Now why do you think that might be? Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
February 21, 2021
Categorized
'Junk DNA', Culture, Darwinism, Genetics, Genomics, Intelligent Design
Tagged
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The human genome at 20. We have some answers but way more questions now.

Denyse O'Leary
February 21, 2021
'Junk DNA', Culture, Darwinism, Genetics, Genomics, Intelligent Design
At The Conversation on junk DNA: Bewilderingly, scientists found that the non-coding genome was actually responsible for the majority of information that impacted disease development in humans. Such findings have made it clear that the non-coding genome is actually far more important than previously thought. Read More ›