Wednesday, January 03, 2007

DNA "spectral lines"   posted by Fly @ 1/03/2007 05:08:00 PM
Share/Bookmark

DNA no-no's

Elements can be detected in the solar energy spectrum because elements absorb specific wavelengths creating dark lines in the hot body radiation spectrum. By analogy "forbidden" DNA sequences would form "dark lines" in the expected DNA sequence frequency spectrum. Find interesting stuff by what is missing. Neat.

"COULD there be forbidden sequences in the genome - ones so harmful that they are not compatible with life? One group of researchers thinks so. Unlike most genome sequencing projects which set out to search for genes that are conserved within and between species, their goal is to identify 'primes': DNA sequences and chains of amino acids so dangerous to life that they do not exist."