![]() ![]() ![]() Most of them, though, are molecular fossils. They are long stretches of DNA with recognizable sequences and they technically have the ability to pack up their stuff and move elsewhere in the genome. That is because they are estimated to make up about 17% of human DNA or almost one-fifth. If you keep roaming down that long spaghetti noodle, you are bound to see a LINE-1 element. There are genes-not as many as we once thought, about 20,000 in humans-and these genes get transcribed into RNA that is itself translated into a specific protein, the effector of the cell.īut protein-coding genes only make up a tiny portion of the entirety of our DNA. This DNA is a very, very long spaghetti noodle that occasionally bunches up into discrete chromosomes, and that interminable noodle contains stretches that play different roles. (There are powerhouses outside the nucleus called mitochondria, and they have a tiny ring of DNA, but we will put that aside for today.) It’s the command center of the cell and it contains our DNA. Inside the cell, there is a glob called the nucleus. Our organs are made of tissues, and these tissues are made of cells. Its authors claim they “found that DNA copies of SARS-CoV-2 sequences can be integrated into the genome of infected human cells.” It sure sounds scary but, as always, the devil is in the details. Now, this pre-print has been tweaked, peer-reviewed, and published in the journal PNAS. This pre-print was met with thunderous rebuttals from many in the scientific community, and it was flown as a victory flag by the anti-vaccine movement. In it, scientists claimed to have discovered bits of the genetic material from the coronavirus fused to human DNA. It had not been officially reviewed by other scientists, and it had not yet been accepted for publication in an academic journal. Last December, they found a study they could use to bolster their claim. What if, anti-vaccine activists will argue to stir up the flames of anxiety, the genetic material inside these vaccines shoves itself inside your DNA, disrupting the order of things and mutating you in unpredictable ways? You see, the COVID-19 vaccines in use right now contain genetic instructions (either RNA or DNA) to tell our body to manufacture the coronavirus’ spike protein. Anti-vaxxers, who downplay the threat of COVID-19, don’t typically see this as a problem with the virus itself rather, they use this claim (again, claim) to scare the bejesus out of people contemplating one of the COVID-19 vaccines. It has to do with the claim (and I must repeat, the claim) that the genetic material from the coronavirus could integrate itself inside our own genetic material, that the SARS-CoV-2 RNA could get turned into DNA and mingle with our own. It is not a study that should be casually dismissed, nor can its results be embraced and spun into catastrophic conclusions. There is a paper that came out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (or PNAS ) that I fear will be weaponized by anti-vaccine activists. It’s just a statement of fact with which all scientists would probably agree, and it’s a sort of mantra we can repeat to ourselves to recalibrate our expectations once in a while. This is not meant to dissuade anyone from going into the sciences. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |