Scientists discover double meaning in genetic code

This seems like quite a breakthrough. Thought it might be of interest.

Scientists have discovered a second code hiding within DNA. This second code contains information that changes how scientists read the instructions contained in DNA and interpret mutations to make sense of health and disease.

Since the genetic code was deciphered in the 1960s, scientists have assumed that it was used exclusively to write information about proteins. UW scientists were stunned to discover that genomes use the genetic code to write two separate languages. One describes how proteins are made, and the other instructs the cell on how genes are controlled. One language is written on top of the other, which is why the second language remained hidden for so long.

“For over 40 years we have assumed that DNA changes affecting the genetic code solely impact how proteins are made,” said Stamatoyannopoulos. “Now we know that this basic assumption about reading the human genome missed half of the picture. These new findings highlight that DNA is an incredibly powerful information storage device, which nature has fully exploited in unexpected ways.”

Apparently the discovery of duons has major implications for how scientists and physicians interpret a patient’s genome and will open new doors to the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

Story:
www.washington.edu...

reply to post by pandersway


Holy crap! This is a really big deal.

Honestly, this opens up new possibilities for enhancing the human condition....which is interesting to say the least.

Lets say we study populations with longer life spans and isolate the coding behind their cells and figure out why they react differently than in other short lived populations even though they have almost identical genes, we could then incorporate their coding into other people.

Perhaps we can develop genetic enhancements which are NOT passed onto other generations but rather are specific to each person. SO you could alter the way a person´s genes are interpreted by his cells without altering his genetic template.

Star and flagged

this is really big maybe they could use this discovery for gene therapy.

reply to post by truthofnitrous


Great discovery BUT I really am concerned by the way in which our DNA is grabbed from us for any excuse by Government. I naturally don't mind an ethical medical profession taking it if a patient needs this kind of knowledge taken in order to improve or save their lives.

I also don't mind it being taken to ensure a suspect is actually guilty of crimes such as murder and rape etc etc and kept on record if the person is guilty and likely to come back onto the streets.

But I have a nasty feeling that this information which utterly controls people's health is not only a weapon that can be used against either individuals or whole populations and also for extortion to withold insurance, jobs etc etc.

I think that very, very careful legislation and a choice of whether to have one's DNA on any form of record should be given to each individual.

Where genuine research for the benefit of our health etc is going to be undertaken I am fine, however with such corruption and deceipt by both governments and various groups like the police, who in the UK sell private information I want my DNA kept private for my own security and to know that if I give it, it is in very safe hands.

I'm listening to politicians talking as though cancer is now cured - which for most of us it is not and I can't help wondering if some cures which heal us from culling diseases could be witheld to control population and the cost of medication and hospital bills. Knowledge of our DNA plays a part in this and I doubt many could put their hand on their heart and not know this unpleasant side of our politics.

Star and flag for the poster.

reply to post by pandersway


AKA as the "double helix of meaning".

The more you know, the less you'll understand.

Thanks for posting.

Is this true?! Would we now have to embrace intelligent design if we're intellectually honest?

reply to post by The GUT


Please explain how this has anything to do with intelligent design? I fail to see the link between a second layer of data in a strand of DNA and an omnipotent being.

Using the terms "intellectually honest" and "intelligent design" in the same sentence is an oxymoron. There is nothing intellectually honest about inserting something that has zero supporting evidence as an explanation for anything.

reply to post by xDeadcowx


Don't you know?

Uh Guh...like...the doctor who found out that humans and dinosaurs lived together totally figures this stuff out.

I was outside and some guy said that there was a woman that photographed things and that's how we have double Helix knowledge...then I said he was a double helix and he ran away.

Some other guy came up and said that we are just now figuring out the finest points and that matter connects and things are smaller than they appear. I said well duh. There's finer things in life. Shello.

what if life was just about DNA and not about us or any other organism?
just a way for DNA to get around?

sure seems like it.

like plants and animals have DNA, that's the only thing we have in common, besides living on the same planet.
and the dna can identify a single individual.

plant or animal.

reply to post by Shiloh7


It can go either or though.

But tend to look at this at an optimistic point of view. Yes governments can use this for depopulation, they can withold cures for diseases, have private coporations sell your genetic data to them. (Speaking of which doesn't the UN already have a genetic database? Because i remember hearing that the blood the doctors take from you from birth is sent to a giant data base. I dont knoe where though.) Ok back on topic but i also see the positive side of this. Being able to delay the effects deteritive deseases like MS in people until a later age, being able to treat people with severe autism and downs syndrome.

xDeadcowx
Please explain how this has anything to do with intelligent design? I fail to see the link between a second layer of data in a strand of DNA and an omnipotent being.

Using the terms "intellectually honest" and "intelligent design" in the same sentence is an oxymoron. There is nothing intellectually honest about inserting something that has zero supporting evidence as an explanation for anything.

Well, there is somewhat of an oxymoron here, but it resides in the paradox of the linked article as I'll explain in a minute. That is, when 'oxymoron' is used correctly, which you didn't.

Design would always denote intelligence, so that's not an oxymoron even by your misusage. "Intellectual honesty" is a well-recognized phrase that has a decided meaning. Thusly, I hesitate to explain myself to someone with so little grasp of language and inference.

I'll give it a shot, however, because I feel sorry for you.

The University of Washington--UoW being an academic institution--has chosen words such as, "meaning," "code," "write," and "instructions' as descriptors in the linked article.

Those are suggestive and heavy-duty words. You shouldn't need as much of a lesson on their impact as you seem to on the definition of oxymoron---though I could be wrong on that. Read 'em again if you're still lost. It'll hit ya.

Philosophically--and with Occam's in mind--I would further proffer that the idea that this particular and most spectacular of creative forces--DNA--stems from something less than "consciousness" is negated in that we don't even have--at least as far as the University of Washington is concerned--words that don't imply design when describing the theorem. Design, as you'll remember from above, suggests intelligence.

And we haven't even gotten to the added complexity of the "second language."


Oh…before I forget:

Although a true oxymoron is "something that is surprisingly true, a paradox," Garry Wills has argued that modern usage has brought a common misunderstanding[4] that oxymoron is nearly synonymous with contradiction.

en.wikipedia.org...

Thanks for sharing. That would go along with then results on a recent study saying that phobias can modify DNA being be passed on from parent to child.

What if Atoms are actually intelligent beings, and construct their own dna strings, and fool around with creation?

What if the Atoms, are the G:heys.

We exist only in a Dimension of space and time, to suit the Atoms.

Can only an Atomic Bomb kill Atoms?
Does an Atom live for infinity.

Hail to the Atom!!

reply to post by The GUT



That's a case well made, data, encoding, information...Design.



“The life of a designer is a life of fight: fight against the ugliness.”
― Massimo Vignelli

gort51
What if Atoms are actually intelligent beings, and construct their own dna strings, and fool around with creation?

What if the Atoms, are the G:hey

s.

We exist only in a Dimension of space and time, to suit the Atoms.

Can only an Atomic Bomb kill Atoms?
Does an Atom live for infinity.

Hail to the Atom!!

ya, what if.

could be. right?

reply to post by tsingtao

like plants and animals have DNA, that's the only thing we have in common, besides living on the same planet.

Pretty sure they have a lot more in common than that in a matter of speaking.

*failed pun fails*

reply to post by pandersway


As above so below.

reply to post by pandersway


Appluse to the OP and the findings. Wish I had written it down, but whenever I heard that DNA just programmed proteins it felt wrong, and I never really focused on what was claimed about it because the thing obviously had many more uses than that. Of course it regulates genes. But now people will be looking for even more hidden coding in the sequences.

And what does this say about RNA? The sky is the limit again, which is always fun.

EDIT: And what will this tell us about ancestry? Will it add to crime detection? Will it be able to further link species and identify the percentages of "programming" which species have in common?

reply to post by Aleister


It seems to me like some sort of natural encryption, very similar to steganography.

I'm not saying this is true or anything, but it it is, it could uncover some of natures most precious secrets, and aid in the explanation of some of the more difficult to understand aspects of biology and the life process. At the same time, this could just be another one of those stories that comes across ATS and there's nothing to it. Which, if that's the case, would at least make for an interesting novel.

Reading through the postings so far, there seem to be an awfully large number of people ready to throw out everything we know so far on the topic of DNA... and all based on one single press release.

Because thats all this is.
One single press release from the university, advertising their publication in Science.

Details are thin. But what it appears to be saying is that :
- most everything we know so far *stays the same*
- some codons also "appear to stabilise certain beneficial features of proteins and how they are made".


The idea that DNA sequences not only code for proteins, but also code for gene control is not news. This has been known for decades. What the paper appears to be saying (based on the press release) is that some elements within the introns can also function as control data.

I'd like to see more detail than a press release though.