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It looks like there is software in DNA, not just firmware. We are just starting to understand that gene expression is very important too, code that express(is e
by forgottenpaswrd 13y ago
It looks like there is software in DNA, not just firmware. We are just starting to understand that gene expression is very important too, code that express(is executed) or not based on the environment, and that junk DNA is probably "not understood code" .
- taproot 13y agoJunk dna is just header files and whitespace.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mikecane 13y agoIt's interesting to think of it like that but that's basing your understanding on something else that's just not as complex.
- damon_c 13y ago> junk DNA Properly referred to as "noncoding DNA"... until it is proved to be coding something.
- kissickas 13y agoThere is, in fact, a difference between "junk DNA" and "noncoding DNA," now that we see some noncoding DNA performing functions as switches, promoters, TF-binding sites (like the article describes), etc.
- kissickas 13y agoAny source on that bit about junk DNA? I just completed a reasonably advanced course on computational biology and I was still taught that although we have found noncoding DNA performing functions, the majority of our DNA is both noncoding and not used for anything (i.e. evolutionarily obsolete, transposons, etc).
- refurb 13y agoHuh. I haven't heard that take on "junk DNA" in a long time. http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Noncoding_DNA.html http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Noncodi...
- jonathansizz 13y agoYou are correct. Most non-coding DNA is junk, which amounts to around 90% of the genome. Dead transposons alone make up just under half of the human genome.
- ConceptJunkie 13y agoYou know, if we really wanted to be sure about that, we could just check the commit comments.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- possibilistic 13y agoDNA is a machine. It encodes information, but it also lives and breathes through interaction with various TFs, methylation events, packing, etc. There many types of epigenetic "state information". We've known this for a looong time, it's just that it's so damned complex that we have trouble grappling with it. And let's not forget the rest of the cell and all of the information encoded at the protein/messenger level.
- atmosx 13y agoI think it's more appropriate to say that the DNA is a storage medium. A pretty awesome storage medium: ~700 terabytes can be stored 1g of DNA. The "machine" you are referring two, can be a set of enzyme complexes which performs the DNA transcription, as you said at the messenger RNA level.