Evolutionary Leftovers in DNA? Not So, Says New Study. | The Institute for Creation Research

Evolutionary Leftovers in DNA? Not So, Says New Study.

Francis Collins and Karl Giberson, prominent participants of the BioLogos Forum, have suggested that Christians should believe in evolution because it has been confirmed by science. They relied on a category of DNA called "pseudogenes" to make this case in their recently published book The Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions. However, evidence continues to mount that completely nullifies this argument.

Pseudogenes have almost the same DNA sequence as a regular gene, which codes for a protein. But a pseudogene has an embedded "stop" message inside its sequence. When first discovered, it was thought that the stop message was an accidental mutation that prevented the DNA from being processed into a full-length protein, and that therefore pseudogenes must be useless junk.1 Evolutionists believed that this "useless" DNA would provide the necessary material for natural processes to work with to "invent" the new enzymes required for one life form to evolve into another.

But that was prior to about 10 years ago, when evidence began accumulating that the "broken" bits of genes were nonetheless processed and used as regulatory features in the cell.

A review of recently discovered pseudogene function appeared in RNA, a technical journal published by the RNA Society. Its abstract's first sentence reads:

Pseudogenes have long been labeled as "junk" DNA, failed copies of genes that arise during the evolution of genomes. However, recent results are challenging this moniker.2

Those results include the observation that when certain pseudogenes are mutated for research purposes, a loss of regulatory specificity occurs in the cell. In such cases, the original pseudogenes had evidently played a necessary role. The study authors also described how some pseudogenes are "turned off" in cancer cells. If the loss of pseudogene function contributes to cancer, then this again implies that these particular pseudogenes are useful in cells.

The authors summarized their findings in the abstract:

In this review, we describe the ways in which pseudogenes exert their effect on coding genes and explore the role of pseudogenes in the increasingly complex web of noncoding RNA that contributes to normal cellular regulation.2

"Noncoding RNA" refers to RNA molecules whose data are not used in the production of a protein. Instead, these RNAs are vitally important to regulate such parameters as the timing and duration of DNA, RNA, and protein manufacture.

It is now clear that "noncoding" RNAs, which were copied from "noncoding" lengths of DNA, in fact contain vital codes! Just because they do not necessarily code for new proteins does not mean they do not code for something else the cell needs, and these researchers…publishing in a standard evolution-oriented journal…provided specific examples of important regulatory codes in these "noncoding" sequences.

Francis Collins' 2006 book The Language of God argued that since pseudogenes are useless junk, and because God would not have created useless junk, they must be leftovers from a long history of junk-producing mutations over millions of years. Therefore, according to Collins, God must have "used" evolution as part of His creative process. But the fact that pseudogenes are known to be useful nullifies Collins' and Giberson's best evidence for evolution. Have these highly esteemed researchers failed to keep up with recent discoveries about the high level of functionality found throughout DNA?

Without a source of useless "junk DNA" available to mutate infinitely, there is no longer a mechanism for new proteins to evolve.3 In other words, a Creator would have made exactly what is found in a cell's DNA…well-designed, functional components, the vast majority of which is used for vital processes such as gene regulation.

References

  1. Thomas, B. 'False' Gene Discovery Confirms Creation Prediction. ICR News. Posted on icr.org July 12, 2010, accessed May 16, 2011.
  2. Pink, R. C. et al. 2011. Pseudogenes: Pseudo-functional or key regulators in health and disease? RNA. 17 (5): 792-798.
  3. Thomas, B. Science Overturns Evolution's Best Argument. ICR News. Posted on icr.org December 29, 2009, accessed May 12, 2011.

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on May 19, 2011.

The Latest
ACTS & FACTS
Pervasive Genome Functionality Destroys the Myth of Junk DNA
In 2001, the first rough draft of the human genome was published in a collaborative effort between private industry and the public sector.1,2...

NEWS
Happy Labor Day 2025
“For we are laborers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” (1 Corinthians 3:9) Labor Day was...

ACTS & FACTS
The Age of Reptiles Myth
We hear about the Age of Reptiles, also called the Age of Dinosaurs, almost as early as we can understand the idea. Even kindergarteners might be taught...

ACTS & FACTS
The Tiktaalik Missing Link Myth
In 2004, the paleontological community—and the world—was presented with what many evolutionists considered to be a dyedin- the-wool missing...

ACTS & FACTS
Archaeopteryx, Myth of a Transitional Fossil
In 1860, one year after the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, a wonderfully preserved fossil feather was discovered in...

ACTS & FACTS
Busting the Myth about Lucy
by Brian Thomas, Ph.D., and Chris Rupe, Ph.D.* Most folks consider our ape ancestry as established science, with Lucy as the main link. However,...

ACTS & FACTS
Evolutionary Vestigial Features: Worse Than Myth, a Scam
Due to teachers’ influence during the formative years of young people’s lives, they can be a powerful force in spreading evolution to new...

ACTS & FACTS
Blind Cavefish Unmask the Convergent Evolution Myth
Within the ever-expanding theory of evolution, there is a system of specialized language designed to identify each major interpretative concept. Some...

ACTS & FACTS
A Booming Generation
And the king answered them roughly; and king Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the old men, and answered them after the advice of the young men.…And...

ACTS & FACTS
Darwin's Galápagos Finches: The Myth of Natural Selection
A group of birds known as Darwin’s finches (genus Geospiza) lives in the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean 600 miles west of Ecuador....