Human Genome Project & RNA

For the past 50 years, scientists have assumed that genetic information encoded in DNA is transcribed as intermediary molecules of RNA, which are then translated into amino acid sequences that comprise proteins. Mattick (2004) maintains that the prevailing credo based on this assumption is known as ôàone gene, one proteinö (p. 60). Such assumptions were based mainly on studies of prokaryotic (single-cells lacking a nucleus) cells in bacteria like E. coli. Such studies led scientists to believe that proteins were the main catalyst for regulating gene expression.

Because of research on the human genome project

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mming. Phillip A. Sharp of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Richard J. Roberts of New England Biolabs, Inc., and their respective colleagues independently showed that the genes of eukaryotes are not contiguous blocks of protein-coding sequences. Rather they are mosaics of "exons" (DNA sequences that encode fragments of proteins) interspersed with often vast tracts of intervening sequences, or "introns," that do not code for protein. In the nucleus, a gene is first copied in its totality as a primary RNA transcript; then a process called splicing removes the intronic RNAs and reconstitutes a continuous coding sequence-messenger RNA, or mRNA-for translation as protein in the cytoplasm. The excised intronic RNA, serving no apparent purpose, has been presumed to be degraded and recycled. But if introns do not code for protein, then why are they ubiquitous among eukaryotes yet absent in prokaryotes? Although introns constitute 95 percent or more of the average protein-coding gene in humans, most molecular biologists have considered them to be evolutionary leftovers, or junk. Introns were rationalized as ancient remnants of a time before cellular life evolved, when fragments of protein-coding information crudely assembled i
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Some common words found in the essay are:
RNA Mattick, Biolabs Inc, CONSIDER HAPPENS, Genetic Dogma, Eric Turkheimer, Tufts University, Karen Pittman, Instead Mattick, John Mattick, Children Risk, complex organisms, mattick 2004, human genome,  , versus nurture, nature versus, nature versus nurture, pittman 2003,   , intronic rna, scientific american, genome project, human genome project, versus nurture debate, retrieved september 30,
Approximate Word count = 7187
Approximate Pages = 29 (250 words per page)

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