Junk DNA goodbye: another pseudogene functions (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, January 23, 2022, 14:45 (825 days ago) @ David Turell

It relates to red cell production:

https://evolutionnews.org/2022/01/blast-from-the-past-eugenie-scotts-failed-prediction-...

"Humans have six copies of the beta-globin gene. Five produce beta-globin proteins, but the sixth, the pseudogene copy, has a premature stop codon (and other mutations) that prevent translation into a protein. In Scott’s telling this means that the pseudogene cannot have any function whatsoever. But molecular biology now knows that pseudogenes can produce transcripts which can regulate protein-coding versions of the same gene—and that’s exactly what the researchers propose is going on here.

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"The beta-globin pseudogene’s inability to produce a translatable RNA transcript does not preclude it from being functional. The researchers argue the pseudogene HBBP1 works something like an on/off switch, regulating expression of protein-coding beta-globin genes. Here’s a lengthy quote from the paper:

"n the light of recent studies on the chromatin conformation of the β-globin cluster, we present evidence sustaining that the strong functional constraints underlying the decreased contemporary diversity at these two regions were not driven by protein function but instead are likely due to a regulatory role in ontogenic switches of gene expression. … Over the past years, the β-globin cluster has been regarded as a complex genetic system and a paradigm of gene expression regulation. More recently, a boost of studies on the β-globin cluster have contributed to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the regulation of each gene in the cluster.

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"But there’s a lot more to this story. You’ll note that they “hypothesize” function based upon clear genetic evidence and knowledge of how gene regulation operates. The precise function of the HBBP1 pseudogene was confirmed and identified in a 2021 paper published in Developmental Cell titled “Genome-wide analysis of pseudogenes reveals HBBP1’s human-specific essentiality in erythropoiesis and implication in b-thalassemia.

"The 2021 paper was unmistakable in reporting the important function of this pseudogene, stating: “Pseudogenic HBBP1 confers human-specific essentiality in erythropoiesis.” Erythropoiesis is the process of producing red blood cells, and they report “human-specific indispensability of the HBBP1 transcript” in erythropoiesis and find “HBBP1 is essential for erythroid development and differentiation.”

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"In conclusion, pseudogenes represent a new layer in the flow of genetic information. The highly integrative framework implemented in this study provides a prototype for determining the function of pseudogenes under normal and pathological conditions. Exploration of species-specific regulatory functions of pseudogenes or even studies of population-specific pseudogenes are expected to blossom in future.

"In other words, the “traditional view” that pseudogenes are “functionless evolutionary relics” has hindered research into understanding the true nature of pseudogenes. But now that we’re overcoming that old view, they expect studies elucidating specific functions of pseudogenes to “blossom” in the future.

"The implication of this story is that in their rush to oppose intelligent design, Darwin defenders like Eugenie Scott and Ken Miller not only made an argument that has turned out to be completely wrong. It may also have slowed the progress of science."

Comment: this is a review from non-ID source material. Who named pseudogenes? Darwinists!! Who named junk DNA? Darwinists!! Note current research, not done by IDers, is demolishing false conclusions by Darwin defenders. Almost all DNA is shown to function. Nothing seems accidental from chance mutations. With no evidence of chance, design emerges as required.