The human genetic code is a relatively simple and straightforward machinery. It features DNA letters, or nucleotides, which together combine in a number of 64 different ways. Once placed in a handy table, these combinations dictate which of the standard 20 amino-acids will be produced. These substances in turn combine to create proteins, which are basic units of all living cells. But, somewhere in between, RNA (ribonucleic acid) steps in. Geneticists and computational biologists have been struggling to get a grasp of its complexity for years, and now a small headway appears to have been made.
According to
Nature News, the challenge associated with studying RNA is its changing nature. At times, the substance may behave as genetic material, while at times it may act as a regulator of genetic information. Numerous variations exist, and each of them fulfills different functions, researchers say. A team of investigators from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, has recently, for the first time, attempted to create a definition of the second genetic code inside living cells. Details of their attempt appear in the May 6 online issue of the esteemed scientific publication Nature.
Research scientists Benjamin Blencowe and Brendan Frey, who were both based at the University, looked more closely at segments of messenger RNA (mRNA). These small pieces of ribonucleic acid can be transcribed from a single gene, and then “mixed and matched” so that numerous other byproducts appear in different tissues. This process is generally called alternative splicing, and its exact mechanisms are still a mystery to researchers. Such an investigation was only made possible through the use of advanced computational methods and algorithms, which allow researchers to combine more than 200 different features of DNA with predictions of RNA structure.
“It's an exciting time. There's going to be a lot of progress in the next few years,” says Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) computational biologist Christopher Burge. He reveals that advanced informatics is currently of critical importance to the field of biology. High-throughput observations methods allowed experts to, for example, identify the fact that about 95 percent of the entire human genome is alternatively spliced, which is something that was not known before. “The splicing code is a problem that we've been bashing our heads against for years. Now we finally have the technologies we need,” Burge reveals.
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