Genome complexity: transcriptome mechanics, construction (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, November 20, 2021, 15:41 (887 days ago) @ David Turell

A review of genome complexity in one activity:

https://christianscholars.com/guest-post-latest-discoveries-in-the-field-of-structural-...

"Transcription is the biochemical process that occurs in every cell in the human body when protein synthesis is initiated. It is a complex series of steps that begin in the nucleus when a gene—a section on a strand of DNA—expresses instructions for a specific protein to be produced.

"...In simple terms, the portion of the DNA molecule where the gene is located is unzipped resulting in a strand of mRNA (messenger RNA). mRNA can be thought of as a digital tape that contains a sequence of 3-letter codes called codons that dictate the precise sequence of amino acids for the protein it is about to produce.

The mRNA leaves the nucleus and enters the site of protein synthesis called a ribosome. It is here that the codons are read and the specific amino acids are delivered by a second RNA molecule, tRNA (transfer RNA) which has its own 3-letter sequences called anti-codons that match the codons on the mRNA. The process continues; the ribosome continues assembling the amino acids one-by-one until the protein has been assembled according to the instructions originally encoded on the gene.

***

"They discovered it involves something called a preinitiation complex (PIC); an ensemble of transcription factors, an enzyme called RNA polymerase II (Pol II), more transcription factors, and a mediator complex that stabilizes the structure. In all there are about 75 different proteins.

"In order to image the PIC, it first had to be produced. This entailed building “on years of painstaking work by research teams that not only established methods for isolating all of the PIC’s protein components in the lab but coaxed those pieces into assembling in just the right way, without the whole complex falling apart.”1

"There is a deeper, philosophical question here: How can such a complex molecular machine, crucial for the synthesis of proteins and hence life, be itself dependent on 75 different proteins for its function? Where did those proteins come from in the first place if there was no PIC to initiate protein synthesis? (my bo ld)

"Or what came first—the chicken or the egg?"

Comment: any reasonable person, reading this article, would recognize the need for design, so why not accept a designer at work? Not at the 'maybe' level of thought!