Casey LuskinA 2010 paper in
Nature magazine again shows that what was "once dismissed as junk" turns out to be another astounding example of complex and specified information in the genome and a crucial part of gene regulation.
In 2008
Scientific American noted that microRNAs were "once dismissed as junk" and said the following:
Tiny snippets of the genome known as microRNA were long thought to be genomic refuse because they were transcribed from so-called "junk DNA," sections of the genome that do not carry information for making proteins responsible for various cellular functions. Evidence has been building since 1993, however, that microRNA is anything but genetic bric-a-brac. Quite the contrary, scientists say that it actually plays a crucial role in switching protein-coding genes on or off and regulating the amount of protein those genes produce.A recent study published in
Nature, "
Mammalian microRNAs predominantly act to decrease target mRNA levels," has confirmed how microRNAs (miRNAs) have such an important effect upon gene regulation.
A news story in
ScienceDaily explains the discovery:
A cell uses each microRNA to dampen the protein production of hundreds of target mRNAs, thereby fine-tuning the cell's protein output. To create a protein, a cell uses an RNA template that is copied from a gene. A cellular machine called a ribosome then translates this mRNA template into a chain of amino acids to form the protein. Until now, researchers were unsure where in this process microRNAs act -- through elimination of mRNA targets or through interference with mRNA-to-amino acid translation without much change in the mRNA.The paper found that microRNAs regulate gene expression by eliminating mRNA targets by pairing to them so they can "direct destruction of the targeted mRNA." According to the paper, "For both ectopic and endogenous miRNA regulatory interactions, lowered mRNA levels account for most (¡Ý84%) of the decreased protein production." As the abstract states, "changes in mRNA levels closely reflect the impact of miRNAs on gene expression and indicate that destabilization of target mRNAs is the predominant reason for reduced protein output."
This evidence now implicates deep levels of design not just in the sequences of protein, but also in the regulation of the entire transcription and translation process. MicroRNAs must be specially tailored to bind to the proper mRNA transcripts in order to foster their degradation and repress translation, when appropriate. Other mechanisms must inhibit repression and allow for translation.
What was "once dismissed as junk" turns out to be another astounding example of complex and specified information in the genome and a crucial part of gene regulation. Which paradigm would have predicted this finding: unguided neo-Darwinian evolution, or intelligent design?
