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| Fig. 1 rRNA "Parts is Parts" |
I. Background
"Where da atoms at?" The word 'atom' is not mentioned in the Wikipedia Tata box entry (Wikipedia TATA box).
Not mentioning atoms when discussing genetics seems to be a common practice.
In this Dredd Blog series we are looking deep into reality, not from 30,000 feet up, but instead from way down under the surface into what ribosomes are made of:
"Ribosomes are made up of ribosomal proteins and ribosomal RNA (rRNA). In prokaryotes, ribosomes are roughly 40 percent protein and 60 percent rRNA. In eukaryotes, ribosomes are about half protein and half rRNA. Ribosomes are usually made up of three or four rRNA molecules and anywhere from about 40 to 80 different ribosomal proteins."
(Encyclopedia Britannica). But "where da atoms at" was pointed out in another Dredd Blog post appendix where the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA atom pattern is shown to have a very similar pattern to rRNA atom patterns shown in today's appendix.
Likewise, rRNA codons are made of the same base pairs/nucleotides as mRNA (Fig. 1), thus looking for the uniqueness of each RNA type led me to the atoms again.
Today's appendix (Ribosomal rRNA) contains the results of an analysis of several gigabytes of ribosomal rRNA downloaded from NCBI (the link is in the appendix).
The ribosome is one of the most incredible micro-machines in the underworld (see video one below), so the mystery of why only 4 atom types make up DNA and RNA in virtually matching percentages.
The technique used to analyze the rRNA in today's post is similar to the one used to analyze the mRNA in another Dredd Blog series Small Brains Considered - 15.
In a future post I will analyze the other component of rRNA (ribosomal proteins) in the context of "where da atoms at?".
II. Closing Comments
The reason for the ongoing research is seeking the answer to the question "how did four atom types decide to make genomes" ... unless they have tiny super, hyper, genius brain power?
Yep, "do atoms have brains?" is not a question one likes to ask, but when forced to (after analyzing what we find when we look below the surface) we have to ask.
Until then, like Dr. Paul Faulkowski (second video below) says, "we don't know" is all we can honestly say.
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
After all these years "Scientists have finally decoded mysteries of the Y chromosome. Here’s why it matters" (Link).
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