Another cell proof reader found, according to a report in EurekAlert, 7th Jan 2009. Scientists at Johns Hopkins University have found another quality control step in the process of making proteins from instructions encoded in DNA. Proteins are long strings of amino acids which are folded into complex three dimensional shapes. The shape of the protein must be exactly right if it is to carry out its function. To make a protein, the information from DNA is copied onto another molecule named RNA. The information on RNA is used by the cell’s protein making machines, called ribosomes, to assemble the protein by stringing amino acids together. If a wrong amino acid is connected to the growing string the ribosome stops the process and rapidly ejects the partially completed protein. Molecular biologist Rachel Green explained: “We thought that once the mistake was made, it would have just gone on to make the next bond and the next. But instead, we noticed that one mistake on the ribosomal assembly line begets another, and it’s this compounding of errors that leads to the partially finished protein being tossed into the cellular trash.” Green went on to say, “The cell is a wasteful system in that it makes something and then says, forget it, throw it out. But it’s evidently worth the waste to increase fidelity. There are places in life where fidelity matters.”
Editorial Comment This protein proofreading system is one of many systems in the cell that ensure cellular information is not changed in its storage, copying or application, i.e. cells are designed to NOT evolve new genetic information or new proteins. This is one mechanism which ensures they do produce after their kind as Genesis states God created them to do (Genesis 1:11 ff). After all proof reading and back-up systems, whether in a human designed computer or the one found in this study, are evidence of plan and purpose, not random evolution. (Ref. biochemistry, protein synthesis, design)
Evidence News 24 June 2009