Advances in Biology: RNA

So much has changed in biology since I took biology in college it is like comparing the Model T Ford with a 2007 model. While left behind in the advances in biology, I am, nevertheless, interested in the research that is going on and attempting to understand as well as I can with what little I know. I took a course on CD a year or so ago on biology through The Teaching Company in an attempt to understand DNA and intracellular processes better. I didn't retain a lot of specific knowledge, but it was very helpful in gaining perspective that I hadn't had before listening to the CD.

In any case, the latest issue of The Economist has as its feature article new advances in understanding RNA, an important nucleic acid that previously had been thought to mainly a message carrier from DNA and a transport to collect the building materials to make proteins. But according to the article, "Really New Advances," molecular biology is going through a major shake-up with regard to its understanding of the function of RNA.

Far from the limited functions biologists supposed it to have, they are discovering that they are everywhere in the cell and that they have a multitude of functions, many that have not even been discovered according to researchers. In fact new discoveries of new RNAs and their functions are occurring so rapidly that "a group called the RNA Ontology Consortium has been promised half a million dollars to prune and tend the growing thicket" of new RNA discoveries (87).

The implications are profound. According to the article,

In the light of this abundance, perceptions about what a gene is need to change. Genes were once thought of almost exclusively as repositories of information about how to build proteins. Now, they need to be seen for what they really are: RNA factories. Genes for proteins may even be in the minority (87).

I find the greater the intracellular complexity the more fascinating the cell and life become, and it only increases my awe of God and God's handiwork.