O mito evolucionista do DNA lixo foi para lata do lixo da História da Ciência

segunda-feira, setembro 17, 2012

'Junk DNA' Debunked

Studies Find Human Genomic Makeup Is Vastly Messier; New Disease Links Seen


Press Association - Associated Press

Researchers describe DNA studies Wednesday that could point the way to new methods to detect and treat disease. From left, Tim Hubbard of Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Roderic Guigo of the Centre for Genomic Regulation and Ewan Birney of the European Bioinformatics Institute.

The deepest look into the human genome so far shows it to be a richer, messier and more intriguing place than was believed just a decade ago, scientists said Wednesday.

While the findings underscore the challenges of tackling complex diseases, they also offer scientists new terrain to unearth better treatments.

The new insight is the product of Encode, or Encyclopedia of DNA Elements, a vast, multiyear project that aims to pin down the workings of the human genome in unprecedented detail.

Encode succeeded the Human Genome Project, which identified the 20,000 genes that underpin the blueprint of human biology. But scientists discovered that those 20,000 genes constituted less than 2% of the human genome. The task of Encode was to explore the remaining 98%—the so-called junk DNA—that lies between those genes and was thought to be a biological desert.

That desert, it turns out, is teeming with action. Almost 80% of the genome is biochemically active, a finding that surprised scientists.

In addition, large stretches of DNA that appeared to serve no functional purpose in fact contain about 400,000 regulators, known as enhancers, that help activate or silence genes, even though they sit far from the genes themselves.

The discovery "is like a huge set of floodlights being switched on" to illuminate the darkest reaches of the genetic code, said Ewan Birney of the European Bioinformtics Institute in the U.K., lead analysis coordinator for the Encode results.

For example, the new research helped scientists to discover that a particular type of regulatory switch, known as the GATA family of transcription factors, was associated with the risk of Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel condition. The data helped narrow down this link from a possible 2,000 options, said Dr. Birney.

"That's a new association, and we're saying we have about 400 of those" showing other such biological links, he added.
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Read more here/Leia mais aqui: The Wall Street Journal

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NOTA DESTE BLOGGER:

Desde 1998 os teóricos do Design Inteligente afirmavam que o DNA "lixo" iria se revelar uma riqueza de informação genética. O argumento era usado pelos evolucionistas ortodoxos fundamentalistas xiitas como um argumento contra a teoria do Design Inteligente e a favor da teoria da evolução de Darwin. Não podem mais usar este argumento, e levaram uma bordoada epistêmica no contexto de justificação teórica que vindica mais a posição do Design Inteligente do que Darwin. Em ciência, o que vale são as evidências e não a teoria!

Pobre Galera dos meninos e meninas de Darwin: vocês não vão poder mais usar este argumento contra o DI.

Fui, nem sei por que, rindo da cara de alguns amigos meus na Nomenklatura científica que eram (ainda são???) ardentes defensores do dogma evolucionista do DNA "lixo". Minhas condolências para vocês do fundo do meu coração!!!