The DNA Mystery: Scientists Stumped By 'Telepathic' Abilities

www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblo...ties.html

DNA has been found to have a bizarre ability to put itself together,
even at a distance, when according to known science it shouldn't be
able to. Explanation: None, at least not yet.

Scientists are reporting evidence that contrary to our current beliefs
about what is possible, intact double-stranded DNA has the “amazing”
ability to recognize similarities in other DNA strands from a
distance. Somehow they are able to identify one another, and the tiny
bits of genetic material tend to congregate with similar DNA. The
recognition of similar sequences in DNA’s chemical subunits, occurs in
a way unrecognized by science. There is no known reason why the DNA is
able to combine the way it does, and from a current theoretical
standpoint this feat should be chemically impossible.

Even so, research published in ACS’ Journal of Physical Chemistry B,
shows very clearly that homology recognition between sequences of
several hundred nucleotides occurs without physical contact or
presence of proteins. Double helixes of DNA can recognize matching
molecules from a distance and then gather together, all seemingly
without help from any other molecules or chemical signals.

In the study, scientists observed the behavior of fluorescently tagged
DNA strands placed in water that contained no proteins or other
material that could interfere with the experiment. Strands with
identical nucleotide sequences were about twice as likely to gather
together as DNA strands with different sequences. No one knows how
individual DNA strands could possibly be communicating in this way,
yet somehow they do. The “telepathic” effect is a source of wonder and
amazement for scientists.

“Amazingly, the forces responsible for the sequence recognition can
reach across more than one nanometer of water separating the surfaces
of the nearest neighbor DNA,” said the authors Geoff S. Baldwin,
Sergey Leikin, John M. Seddon, and Alexei A. Kornyshev and colleagues.

This recognition effect may help increase the accuracy and efficiency
of the homologous recombination of genes, which is a process
responsible for DNA repair, evolution, and genetic diversity. The new
findings may also shed light on ways to avoid recombination errors,
which are factors in cancer, aging, and other health issues.

Posted by Rebecca Sato.