Current Replies for "DNA research supports Alphomist prediction" |
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DNA research supports Alphomist prediction
Richard
Posted: 20/10/2005
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The UK's Guardian newspaper of the 20th of October 2005 carries an article entitled 'Time to stop trashing junk DNA'.It tells of research, undertaken by Peter Andolfatto, a biologist at the University of California San Diego, on the DNA of fruit flies. It is normally supposed that about 80% of fruit fly DNA is 'junk' (the figure for humans is said to be almost 95%). Andolfatto's investigation into the rate of mutation of fruit fly DNA leads him to the conclusion that the 'non-protein-coding' sections of the fruit fly DNA are not junk at all but "...are somehow functionally important to the organism". The article reports also that the research has shown that the 'junk' DNA regions were very different in different species of fruit fly, "suggesting an evolutionary importance".
One of the bolder predictions made by Alphomism is that the so-called junk DNA will be found to be anything but waste material. This research is perhaps an indication that the prediction might be correct.
Richard.
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