2016/12/30

Is a random, stochastic process able to create a morse coding system?

Is a random, stochastic process able to create a coding system much more complex than Morse?

Do you remember the Morse coding method? It's a universal communication system by which you can encode letters and words to dashs and dots and receiver can decode those marks back to text. Morse coding method was widely used all over the world after year 1836 when Samuel F.B. Morse developed that method together with two American physicists.


The cell uses very sophisticated encoding-decoding mechanisms. When the cell is producing a required protein, the DNA code is transcribed into messenger RNA in a process called RNA polymerase. Eukaryotes use several types of RNA polymerases for different purposes but let's have a look at the RNA Polymerase II. Messenger RNA is modified in a complex process called alternative splicing. By this way the cell is able to produce several types of proteins for different purposes just by using one gene. Messenger RNA is a temporary stage and several complex mechanisms are involved to the protein production mechanisms before and after the messenger RNA has been translated. Factors influencing this fine tuned and accurate mechanism, methyl groups, are attached on top of the DNA and histones. These chemical tags are called epigenetic markers and they play a major role in cellular differentiation and specialization. Different types of short and long non coding RNA molecules also play a very important role in regulating transcription and translation.

This encoded message is checked and verified by several control mechanisms that keep biological information secured and redundant. The messenger RNA is a complex encoded message that is able to carry several layers and types of information.
 



Modern science has recently found astonishing new information layers by which the cell is able to regulate and fine tune the protein production. Here's one of them:


http://www.labmanager.com/news/2016/12/research-reveals-codes-that-control-protein-expression?fw1pk=2#.WGX421uLTq6

Excerpt: "An internal code in cellular molecules called messenger RNA predetermines how much protein they will produce, scientists from Weill Cornell Medicine discovered in a new study.

The findings may settle a fundamental question in molecular biology—how the amount of protein generated from a messenger RNA (mRNA) is determined—and could help scientists develop new therapies for diseases such as cancer where abnormal amounts of protein accumulate.

“This is one of the biggest questions in molecular biology,” said senior study author Dr. Samie Jaffrey, the Greenberg-Starr Professor and a professor of pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine.


The researchers have discovered that additional methyl marks are present on those caps, and that the position and number of methyl marks encode information that determines how stable mRNAs will be, and in turn, how much protein they will produce. mRNA caps containing two methyl groups cause the mRNA to be highly stable and lead to increased protein production, while mRNA caps with only one methyl group cause normal mRNA stability and result in lower protein levels.

The investigators discovered the methyl mark encoding process by examining adenine, one of the genetic building blocks of mRNA. Scientists have long known that a single methyl can attach to adenosine, creating N6-methyladenosine (m6A). However, if present at the cap, adenosine can also have two methyl marks, creating m6Am.

Many of these mRNAs contained instructions for making proteins that support cellular metabolism, survival and growth, and these proteins are typically essential for cellular proliferation.

The investigators also found that the methyl marks can be added or removed, allowing an mRNA to switch from a highly stable state to a less stable state. They identified an enzyme—a fat mass and obesity-associated protein, or FTO—that can remove the methyl marks of m6Am, helping to restore normal mRNA stability and translation."

Significant finding is that the methylation status of m6Am in the 5' cap is a dynamic and reversible epitranscriptomic modification that determines mRNA stability.

This encoding-decoding concept  is energy efficient, highly secured, verified and redundant and it points to Intelligent Design and Creation.