Creation Moment 8/31/2021 - DNA Communications 101 [This whole DNA System is No Accident of "Natural Selection"]

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. Psalm 139:14 NLT

"Proteins can communicate through DNA, conducting a long-

distance dialogue that serves as a kind of genetic “switch,” according to Weizmann Institute of Science researchers. They found that the binding of proteins to one site of a DNA molecule can physically affect another binding site at a distant location, and that this “peer effect” activates certain genes.

They found that when two ComK molecules bind to one of the sites, it sets off a signal that facilitates the binding of two additional ComK molecules at the second site. The signal can travel between the sites because physical changes triggered by the original proteins’ binding create tension that is transmitted along the DNA, something like twisting a rope from one end. Once all four molecules are bound to the DNA, a threshold is passed, switching on the bacterium’s gene scavenging ability.

“We were surprised to discover that DNA, in addition to containing the genetic code, acts like a communication cable, transmitting information over a relatively long distance from one protein binding site to another,” Rosenblum says.

They found that for communication – or cooperation – between two sites to occur, these sites must be located at a particular distance from one another, and they must face the same direction on the DNA helix. Any deviation from these two conditions – for example, increasing the distance – weakened the communication. 

*The sequence of genetic letters running between the two sites was found to have little effect on this communication, whereas a break in the DNA interrupted it completely, providing further evidence that this communication occurs through a physical connection.

Knowing these details may help design molecular switches of

desired strengths for a variety of applications. The latter may include genetically engineering bacteria or synthesizing enzymes to be used as drugs.

“Long-distance communication within a DNA molecule is a new type of regulatory mechanism – one that opens up previously unavailable methods for designing the genetic circuits of the future,” Hofmann says." SciTechDaily