You feel that if a codon isn’t meant for something, if it doesn’t have a purpose– then it is junk. This is a mindset that is reflective of the machine model of the cell. We used to expect that each protein was bespoke for a function, each transcript necessary.
The whole paradigm shift at hand is this model falls flat, even for coding regions. I think you’re actually very spot in here with the prokaryotic DNA or the plant genomes (love me some violets for their weird genomes). Some parts of a genome will rapidly change and appear to serve no real purpose, but the next bite is the important one: even if it seems like there isn’t a purpose, like a top-down prescription for functionality, those regions are still doing something while they are present.
For example, some long non-coding regions affect the likelihood that a person will develop Parkinson’s disease, or in the case of plants with various polyploidies, the relative expression of their genes won’t necessarily change, but the absolute expression may.
Basically, you aren’t wrong that these regions dont have a purpose, because no genes have a purpose. The cell isn’t a machine.
What do you mean by this? I feel like you think the meaning is obvious after everything you’ve said, but it’s not.
Even if we accept that everything you said is true, all it means is that the cell is a very, very complex machine. More complex than current models account for. It’s just chemistry, after all. The chemicals behave in predictable fashion or else life wouldn’t be possible at all. Molecules moving around, transforming, causing other molecules to transform, etc, etc, to turn food into shit and babies. You can always use the word “machine” to describe that, no matter how complex it is. Just like the word “algorithm” can be used to describe the function of code no matter how complex it is, whether it’s a simple path finding algorithm, or the newest machine learning one.
But I probably shouldn’t use the word “function” because that implies purpose, and, as you say, no part of the chemistry of life has purpose. I hope you can detect my snark. That’s a pretty lame argument that’s philosophical at best. The purpose of the machinations of the cell is to maintain life and reproduce. No mater how many times you say it, your words won’t change the fact that that is the purpose of the chemistry of life.
You’ve twisted around the word “purpose” in your head until it has no useful meaning. Nonsense. A molecule can many overlapping, hard to discern purposes. That does not mean it doesn’t have a purpose.
I would encourage you to read the linked Science paper and Dan Nichol’s paper, Is the Cell Really a Machine?
You feel that if a codon isn’t meant for something, if it doesn’t have a purpose– then it is junk. This is a mindset that is reflective of the machine model of the cell. We used to expect that each protein was bespoke for a function, each transcript necessary.
The whole paradigm shift at hand is this model falls flat, even for coding regions. I think you’re actually very spot in here with the prokaryotic DNA or the plant genomes (love me some violets for their weird genomes). Some parts of a genome will rapidly change and appear to serve no real purpose, but the next bite is the important one: even if it seems like there isn’t a purpose, like a top-down prescription for functionality, those regions are still doing something while they are present.
For example, some long non-coding regions affect the likelihood that a person will develop Parkinson’s disease, or in the case of plants with various polyploidies, the relative expression of their genes won’t necessarily change, but the absolute expression may.
Basically, you aren’t wrong that these regions dont have a purpose, because no genes have a purpose. The cell isn’t a machine.
What do you mean by this? I feel like you think the meaning is obvious after everything you’ve said, but it’s not.
Even if we accept that everything you said is true, all it means is that the cell is a very, very complex machine. More complex than current models account for. It’s just chemistry, after all. The chemicals behave in predictable fashion or else life wouldn’t be possible at all. Molecules moving around, transforming, causing other molecules to transform, etc, etc, to turn food into shit and babies. You can always use the word “machine” to describe that, no matter how complex it is. Just like the word “algorithm” can be used to describe the function of code no matter how complex it is, whether it’s a simple path finding algorithm, or the newest machine learning one.
But I probably shouldn’t use the word “function” because that implies purpose, and, as you say, no part of the chemistry of life has purpose. I hope you can detect my snark. That’s a pretty lame argument that’s philosophical at best. The purpose of the machinations of the cell is to maintain life and reproduce. No mater how many times you say it, your words won’t change the fact that that is the purpose of the chemistry of life.
You’ve twisted around the word “purpose” in your head until it has no useful meaning. Nonsense. A molecule can many overlapping, hard to discern purposes. That does not mean it doesn’t have a purpose.