About the genes

[Cyperium]

How many possible combinations of DNA code can there be in a human cell?

I guess that number is astronomical, even in a very simple cell.

Now, the question is: Is then everything ordered in the code, so that there isn't any code that produce chemicals that are dangerous and that there isn't code that totally misbehave or that causes cancer?

I mean, of all those possibilities, there should be some code that is dangerous to us, if not, then how can the whole chain of code be compatible with itself in a unharming way?

Just think about the astronomical possibilities? Even in million of years of evolution, each year evolving a single possibility...surely there is more than a million possibilities for which the code can transform?

Just explain how this can be.

And for it to give rise to such complex creatures, isn't there a big need to rethink this? There must be a more ordered technique of boosting evolution so that change can happen in a more ordered way, directing the change to be benefitial.

Admittably, I think of just one set of code travelling through these millions of years, while in reality there were many creatures with variety in the code for each of those years. However, I still think that the possibility of falsity within the code is so huge compared to the possibility of success within the whole code related to the seperate code within the code which is relevant within itself as to not make it invalid (lol). And also how that code relate to the surrounding codes in a meaningful way.

Another question, how many possibilities of code were there in the very first cell (if there are any ideas), and for how many years had it evolved to form those codes. What did it evolve from, and under what conditions?

 

[valich]

There are countless genetic sequences that are fatal to humans. This is why there are so many birth defects, inherited diseases (~3000), still-births, conjoined twins, mutations, and evolution.

"Humans have a genetic code of about 3.3 billion base pairs (6.6 gigabits or 825 megabytes)....approximately 45,000 genes are contained in 23 separate strands of DNA." http://www.azinet.com/originoflife.html

"A typical animal cell contains a meter of DNA. Each nucleotide, A,C,T, or G can be regarded as a letter in a four-letter alphabet used to write messages in the form of a kind of linear (biological) coded tape. So the number of possible sequences in an animal cell would fill several thousand books with continuous text." http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Reading_Messages_in_Genes.html

 

[spidergoat]

Now, the question is: Is then everything ordered in the code, so that there isn't any code that produce chemicals that are dangerous and that there isn't code that totally misbehave or that causes cancer?

As long as that code doesn't come into effect until after the organism reproduces, it is unlikely to be selected against. The exception is with social creatures, where an adverse gene effects the ability of an organism to care for it's relatives.

Also, some genes that code for something good at a young age may also code for something bad at another, or when triggered by something in the environment. Some genes that are advantageous alone may be deadly when combines with certain others (or the opposite). I understand the gene for resistance to malaria is also related to sickle-cell anemia. So, it's complicated.

The genetic code has an infinite capacity for variation, since it's length is not limited. Also remember that there is code not just for certain body parts, but for how other genes are expressed, so variation in these genes are unlikely to form toxins. There is some evidence for the evolution of evolvability, that is, some genes may "deliberately" (although there is no real intentionality) be more open to variation and copying error.

 

[valich]

Evolution normally causes the genome to evolve in such a way that it increases adaptivity. A clustering of epistatic interacting genes has been shown to increase evolability in macro population genetics, but not microevolution (the classic example of an epistatic gene is albinism). Apparently when these dominant epistatic genes cluster in a genetic sequence, it allows for a larger number of random configurations in the remaining part of the sequence. At least that's how I understand it? Clustering of epistatic genes leaves more genes open in the sequence to randomly recombine. Other papers, however, say that evolability produces a structured pattern of variation across the genome that is "hierarchically organised " and not random.

"Compartmentation reduces the interdependence of processes which can then reduce the chance of pleiotropic [producing more than one effect] damage by mutation and thus increase phenotypic variation." http://www.bio.unc.edu/courses/2004Fall/biol133/Synopsis2.doc

 

[Cyperium]

There are countless genetic sequences that are fatal to humans. This is why there are so many birth defects, inherited diseases (~3000), still-births, conjoined twins, mutations, and evolution.

"Humans have a genetic code of about 3.3 billion base pairs (6.6 gigabits or 825 megabytes)....approximately 45,000 genes are contained in 23 separate strands of DNA." http://www.azinet.com/originoflife.html

"A typical animal cell contains a meter of DNA. Each nucleotide, A,C,T, or G can be regarded as a letter in a four-letter alphabet used to write messages in the form of a kind of linear (biological) coded tape. So the number of possible sequences in an animal cell would fill several thousand books with continuous text." http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Reading_Messages_in_Genes.html

Well, when a person is born the genes of the father and the mother are mixed, I don't know the exact process of this, but this actually have a very high success rate compared to the complexity of the mix.

How can this be?

 

[Scull]

Do you mean gene when you say code, or nucleotide?

And sex combines the genes in a way that if one gene is corrupt, the other can compensate for it. But not all traits are due to one gene.