Re: Article: Birds of a feather not related to each other

From: Perplexed in Peoria (jimmenegay_at_sbcglobal.net)
Date: 12/18/04 

Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 18:50:55 +0000 (UTC)

"Peter F" <effectivespamblock@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message news:cq0b24$1rmc$1@darwin.ediacara.org...
> ...
> 2. that the seven or so histones (compared to the four amino acids of DNA)
> of chromatin (formerly mainly thought to be a mere packing-material for DNA)
> also lend and important by "imprinting" heritable hand to how we become and be
> how we are.
> ...

Peter,

I think you mean the four "bases" of DNA, not the four "amino acids". Also,
I think you should be careful in comparing four bases to seven histones. The
bases constitute an "alphabet" for carrying symbolic information. Replace
an instance of one of the bases with another, and you have a different, garbled
message, but one that still functions as a message. The seven histones are
different - each has its own structural role. Replace one with another and
you don't have a modified message - you simply have a mess.

Whatever role the histones play in modulating and organizing gene expression
in eukariotes, they don't seem to carry information of their own.

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