Tom Ames
Posts: 238
Joined: Dec. 2002
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| Quote (Chris Hyland @ May 04 2006,14:11) | | Yes, I just mean that two pieces of double stranded DNA will line up to preserve the 3'-5' direction. I think AiGs argument was that if the chromosomes joined up face to face half of the new chromosome would run in the opposite direction and the codons would be backwards. I was just pointing out this wouldn't happen. |
I'd like to try to clarify your point, if I may.
In fact, not only do chromosomes not have polarity, but double-stranded DNA does not either. It's composed of two complementary antiparallel strands: one goes 5'->3', the other goes 3'->5'. Flip it around and you'll get the same thing.
But AiG's stupidity does not stop here. They seem to be suggesting that genes run along the double strand in one direction only, that this implies some polarity and that this matters. In fact, there are genes on both strands, transcribed in either direction. Furthermore, the process of transcription has nothing to do with replication. Even if the genes DID all point in one direction, it wouldn't matter one bit. The DNA replication machinery just sees 2 strands of DNA. It works in an antisense direction just as easily as in a sense direction.
This whole line of argumentation could only have been made by someone who has never taken a single semester of modern undergraduate biology. Indeed, the person who makes these arguments could not have paid any attention in his high school biology class (assuming he took biology after 1960 or so).
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-Tom Ames
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