by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D.
Institute for Creation Research
Excerpts:
Pseudogenes were once thought to be nothing but genomic fossils—the remnants of broken genes. Now they are being shown to be highly functional and critical to life processes in the cell. Pseudogenes clearly play an active role in regulating chronic inflammation in humans, a key cellular process that is associated with cancer, autoimmune disorders and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.
Amazingly, scientists documented the activity of 2,082 distinct pseudogenes in the human genome whose aberrant levels of activity were directly associated with cancer-specific pathologies.
[A]nother large-scale pseudogene analysis has also just been published. This time the focus of study was the determination of pseudogene activity in relation to tissue inflammation. The chronic inflammation of tissues in the human body is a key feature related to diseases associated with autoimmune responses, cardiovascular disorders, and neurodegenerative conditions. The research and its results not only showed how large groups of pseudogenes were involved in the inflammation response, but also allowed for the specific targeting of some of them to determine their function.
One such pseudogene that was targeted for study, was named “Lethe,” which turned out to be a master regulator of the inflammation response—turning it off when it was no longer needed. Thus, one of the key regulatory switches in the genome that keeps inflammation in check, is a pseudogene! Not bad for what evolutionists once thought to be a useless genomic fossil.
Many evolutionists try to downplay the fact that pseudogenes are now being shown to be expressed in large numbers, claiming that just because a DNA sequence is biochemically functioning (producing an RNA transcript), doesn’t mean it is important. However, when scientists target individual pseudogenes for closer study, they find that their regulatory functions are not only highly complex, but key to life processes in the cell that keep us healthy. In fact, the products of pseudogenes are now being shown to play very complex roles in the regulation of protein-coding genes in elaborate and dynamic systems of biochemical cross-talk and feedback loops.
Pseudogenes are clearly not pseudo, but rather complex sections of genetic code programmed by an omnipotent and all-wise Creator. The only thing that is pseudo, is the failed paradigm of evolution.
Read the Full Article here: http://www.icr.org/article/7664/
Dr. Tomkins is Research Associate at the Institute for Creation Research and received his Ph.D. in Genetics from Clemson University.
