Scientists at the University of Toronto have discovered a second genetic code using computers which “predicts how segments of messenger RNA transcribed from a given gene can be mixed and matched to yield multiple products in different tissues, a process called alternative splicing.1 This time there is no simple table—in its place are algorithms that combine more than 200 different features of DNA with predictions of RNA structure.” In other words, within the genetic material that specifies the amino acid sequences of proteins lies a second instruction set, far more complex than the first, that determines how portions of genes should be recombined and expressed as RNA according to cell and tissue type contexts. The new code (algorithms derived by computers) was successfully used to predict what RNA would be expressed in novel situations. If the probability of evolving the original genetic code is nil, imagine how much more unlikely it would be that a code within a code would evolve by the random chance/natural selection mechanism. For this author, macroevolution has been falsified.
- 1. Ledford H (2010 May 5) The code within the code. Nature 465:16-17 <http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100505/full/465016a.html> Accessed 2010 May 18