Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The world of DNA - what 9 out of 10 peices of it does

Take your DNA, cut it into bits, 9 out of 10 of them 'does nothing' - they don't make proteins - they aren't 'genes' in any sense - 'they are junk'. Or so people say - no, no it isn't, at least this was discovered onyl 20 years ago, some create RNAs, which won't make protein, but will go find peices of virus RNA and stick there, or block their machinery from being transcribed. They can also go float to other RNA's, and inactivate them, or block them as well. They are the 'interferers' - called in bio vernacular 'RNA interferers' or "RNAi's" - they are the new 'xfiles' of genetics - a new field that looks at DNA that isn't genes. Curious.

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