Thursday, January 17, 2008

Shirdi Sai-man makea life in test tubes!!!

After lecturing and studying about the Human genome and attended the sessions my mind was reluctant to go into any other thing...So fascinating the life and science’s.I happen to read The Book”DNA The secret of life” by james D.Watson with Andrew Berry in that book under the chapter playing god: Customised DNA molecules....I happen to read an interesting thing as follows..
“Aurther kornberg was the first to“make life” in a test tube. In 1950’s as we have seen, he discovered DNA polymerase, the enzyme that replicates DNA though the formation of a complementary copy from an unzipped “parent” strand. Later he would work with the pair of viral DNA, he was ultimately able to induce the application of all the virus’s 5300 base pairs of DNA but the product was not alive. Though identical in DNA sequence to it’s parent, it was biologically inert. Something was missing. The missing ingredient would remain a mystery till 1967.When Martin Gellert at the national Institute of health and Bob Lehmann at standford simultaneously identified it. This enzyme as “ligase” Ligase made it possible to Glue the ends of the DNA molecules together...
Kornberg could replicate the viral DNA using DNA polymerase and by adding ligase, join the two ends together so that the entire molecule formed a continuous loop, just as it did in the original virus, this artificial viral DNA behaved like a original one as exactly, the virus normally multiplies in E.Coli and kornbergs test-tube DNA did that. using just a couple of enzymes, some basic chemical ingredients, and viral DNA from which to make the copy Koernberg had made a biologically active molecule. The media reported he had created life in a test tube...”
My.... it is now 2.30 nights I felt it is better to go to bed. Meanwhile I have totally left the night aarti about my sai unsung today
My sairam is great he will not take it otherwise He knows ultimately I am his child

Aum sairam.

Shirdi sai have you authored this book on genome?- Part IV

The secret of life is indeed a thread...the earth and ocean were probably peopled with vegetable productions long before other families of them, shall we conjecture that one and the same kind of the living filaments is and has been the cause of all organic life?
How can a filament make something live? Life is a slippery thing to define, but it consists of two very different skills, ability to replicate, and the ability to create order. Living things produce the approximate copies of themselves. Rabbits produce rabbits, dandelions produce dandelions, but rabbits do more than that. They eat grass transform themselves....
The key for both of these features of life is information. The ability to replicate is made possible by the existence of the recipe, the information to create a new body. A rabbit’s egg carries the instruction for assembling a new rabbit. But the ability to create order through metabolism also depends on information....
These pieces of information get transcribed translated and synthesis protein which is the actual dogma of molecular biology....as that of selection and sequencing in computer programming....One thing for sure every thing right from machine to man needs selection, sequencing and execution.....isn’t it program ultimately ?
Aum sairam

Shirdi sai have you authored this book on genome?- Part III

I continued my speech in the afternoon session.
Almost everything in the body, from hair to hormones, is either made of proteins or made by them. Every protein is a translated gene. In particular, the body’s reaction is catalyzed by protein known as ENZYMES. Even the processing, photocopying, error correction and assembly of DNA and RNA molecules themselves- the replication and translation are done with the help of proteins, Proteins are also responsible for switching the genes on and off, by physically attaching themselves to PROMOTER and ENHANCER sequences near a start of the gene’s text. Different genes are switched of in different parts of the body
When genes are replicated, mistakes are sometimes made. A letter (base) is occasionally missed out or the wrong letter inserted. Whole sentences or paragraphs are sometimes duplicated, omitted or reversed.This is known as mutation. Many mutation are neither harmful or beneficial, for instance if they change one CODON to another that has the same amino acid ‘meaning’ there are 64 different CODONS and only twenty amino acids, so many DNA ‘words’ share the same meaning. Human beings accumulate about one hundred mutations per generation, which may not seem much given that there are more than a million CODONS in the human genome, but in the wrong place even a single one can be fatal.
All rules have exceptions(including this one) Not all human being genes are found on the 23 principal chromosomes, a few live inside the little blobs called mitochondria, and probably done so ever since the mitochondria were free living bacteria. Not all genes are made of DNA some viruses use RNA instead, Not all genes are recipe fro protein. Some genes are transcribed into RNA but not translated to protein; the RNA goes directly to work instead either part of a ribosome or as transfer RNA. Not all reactions are catalyzed by protein a few are catalyzed by RNA instead. Not every protein comes from a single gene; but some are put together from several recipes. Not all the 64 letter codon specify an amino acid: Three specify STOP commands instead and finally not all DNA spells out genes. Most of it is a jumble of repetitive or random sequences that is rarely or never transcribed: so called the junk DNA. With these basics the tour of the human genome can begin.....

Shirdi sai have you authored this book on genome? - Part II

This is a gigantic document, an immense book, a recipe of extravagant Length, and it all fits inside the microscopic nucleus of a tiny cell that fits easily upon the head of a pin. This book is a piece of digital information written in linear, one dimensional and one directional form and defined by the code that transliterates a small alphabet of signs into a large lexicon of meanings through the order of their groupings. So is the Genome.
only complication is that all English books are read from left to right, whereas some parts of the Genome read from left to right and some from right to left though never both at the same time
English books are written in words of variable length using twenty six letters, genomes are written entirely in three letter words, using only four letters, A, C, G, T which stands for (Adenine Cytosine Guanine and Thiamine)

Instead of being written on flat pages, they are written on long chains of sugar and phosphate called DNA molecules in which the bases are attached as side rungs, each chromosome is one pair of very long DNA molecules. This Genome book is a clever book because in the right condition it can both photocopy and read itself. The photocopying is known as REPLICATION. The reading is known as TRANSLATION
The messenger the RNA copy is the befriended by a microscopic machine called RIBOSOMES. These ribosome moves along the messenger translating each three letter CODON in turn into one letter of a different alphabet of twenty different amino acids. Each amino acid is attached to the last to form a chain in the same order as the CODON. Not all 64 three letter CODONS specifies an amino acid. Three signify stop CODON instead. And finally not all DNA spells out genes. Most of it is a jumble of repetitive or random sequences that is rarely or never transcribed: the so called junk DNA.
I had a cup of water in the middle of my presentation. A person came with a tray on it a bottle of mineral water. He placed it on my table and uttered sairam.....a sai devotee?
Aum Sairam

Shirdi sai have you authored this book on genome? - Part I










With the blessings of shirdi sai and praying to him I started my lecture in the big auditorium of 350 audiences belonging to various categories right from students to professors of various disciplines. Some are not scientist. I wanted one and all to know what I am talking about to make the Genome understandable and hence....

I started with a prelude about Scintillating Primo levi who did something similar with the periodic table of the elements in his autobiographical short stories. He related each chapter of his life to an element one that he had contacts with during the period he was describing.... The same way I read another interesting book on human Genome by Matt Ridley...In his book he says

“I began to think about the Human genome as a sort of autobiography. In its own right, A record written in “genitish,”of all the Vicissitudes and inventions that had characterized the history of our species and its ancestors since the very dawn of life.
Modern genetics is a formidable thicket of jargons.
The human body contains approximately 100 trillion cells. Most of them are less than a tenth of millimeter across. Inside each cell there is a black blob called a Nucleus. Inside the Nucleus are two complete sets of Human genome (Excepting in egg and sperm which has one and red blood cells which has none).One set of genome comes from the mother and other by the father. We are the result after swapping bits of the paternal and maternal chromosomes Called recombination

There are twenty three chapters, called CHROMOSOMES

Each chapter contains several thousands stories, called GENES

Each story is made up of paragraphs, called EXONS which are

Interrupted by advertisements called INTRONS

Each paragraph is made up of words, called CODONS

Each word is written is letters called BASES

There are one billion words in the book that means it makes it as long as 800 bibles. If I read the genome out to you @ one word per second for 8 hrs a day It would take me a centaury to finish reading the book If I write out the Human Genome @one letter per minute, my text would be as long as the river Danube...

After talking on the Human Genome I came and sat amidst a good applause. I was happy that many could appreciate...But I never did aarti to my sai yesterday that was working in my mind....totally into vingjnana (Science) ...that fascinated me....it is all like addiction. Some people get caught in agnana (not good action) and my sai who is a meignani (person with inner knowledge) will he relish it?

My sai only knows...

Aum Sairam