A group of scientists have discovered a second DNA code, hiding within human DNA.
Information stored inside the newly discovered DNA code changes the way scientists read DNA and interpret mutations, according to research.
The team that made the discovery was led by Dr John Stamatoyannopoulos, an associate professor of genome sciences and of medicine at the University of Washington. The findings are published this month on December 13.
“For over 40 years we have assumed that DNA changes affecting the genetic code solely impact how proteins are made,” he said in a statement. “Now we know that this basic assumption about reading the human genome missed half of the picture. These new findings highlight that DNA is an incredibly powerful information storage device, which nature has fully exploited in unexpected ways.”
DNA contains approximately 3 billion bases, 99% of which are identical in all humans. “The order, or sequence, of these bases determines the information available for building and maintaining an organism, similar to the way in which letters of the alphabet appear in a certain order to form words and sentences,” according to the National Institutes of Health.
The genetic code, for example, uses a 64 letter alphabet called codons, and the research team found that certain codons, referred to as duons, can have two meanings. One relates to the protein sequence, and the other to gene control.
Read the entire article here at The Epoch Times.
