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We arent even close to understanding the genome. Genes encode proteins. There is pretty good evidence that the "junk dna" is functional in some way, just not
by russell 18y ago
We arent even close to understanding the genome. Genes encode proteins. There is pretty good evidence that the "junk dna" is functional in some way, just not directly encoding proteins. I dont junk dna has been decoded at all. Also we have very limited understanding of traits that are encoded by multiple genes.
I am in favor of curing diseases by genetic modification, but I am reluctant about further tampering, especially at this state of our knowledge.
- amichail 18y agoIs it possible to understand what a gene/junk dna does by observation? If so, perhaps it can be rewritten from scratch without understanding its implementation. Understanding implementation that is a product of evolution is extremely hard. It's a real mess.
- russell 18y agoSomeday maybe. There are something on the order of 25,000 genes. Lots, maybe even most, have variants, which increase the chance of disease, particularly with certain variants of other genes. Many genes are triggered only at certain times in the embryo's development and in an adult may have an entirely different purpose. So here you have a massive super computer with 25,000 objects and variants whose function varies over time. I don't think we are even close to figuring it out. For example, simulating the folding of a single protein takes a super computer.