Detect the second layer of information hidden in DNA

Not only does the information encoded in the letters, the way in which DNA is placed in cells also controls genes expressed in the human body.

Theoretical physicists claim that it is not only the information encoded in DNA that shapes us, but also how the folded DNA controls the genes expressed in our bodies.

Scientists believe and know this for years. They can also find some proteins responsible for DNA folds . But until now, the team of physicists could prove how this hidden information controls our development through simulation.

The way DNA folds is as important as the genetic code itself in DNA - (Photo: Shutterstock).

To understand this problem, we need to go back to biological knowledge. In 1953, Watson and Crick discovered DNA code - deciding who we were, made up of a series of letters G, A, C and T. The sequence of letters determines the protein expressed in the cells. our. So if you have brown eyes, that's because your DNA contains a series of letters that code a protein that makes the pigment in the iris.

All cells in the body are regulated by the same DNA code, but each organ has different functions. For example, stomach cells do not need to produce brown eyes but need to produce digestive enzymes. The question is, how do they work?

By the 1980s, scientists discovered that the way DNA is folded inside our cells actually controls this process. Environmental factors can also play an important role in the process, with things like stress "turning" or "turning off" genes through epigenetics. But DNA folding mechanism is the initial control mechanism.

That's because each cell in our body contains about 2 meters of DNA, so to fit inside us, it must be folded into a bundle called a nucleosome (the basic structural unit of chromosome, with a diameter of 100 Anstrong).

The way DNA folds controls which genes are "read" by the rest of the cell. This explains why different cells have the same DNA but have different functions.

DNA folding also plays a role in controlling proteins and types of genes expressed in humans - (Photo: extremetech).

Currently, the Leiden University research team in the Netherlands has confirmed for the first time through computer simulations. Physicists led by Helmut Schiessel did this by simulating genomes and assigning the second layer of DNA information. From there, we can see how the layer of hidden information affects how folded DNA and what proteins are understood. This is evidence that the mechanism of DNA sequestration is recorded in our DNA and they are important in the evolution of the coding itself.

Also from here researchers have shown that there is more than one path for DNA mutations to affect us by changing letters in DNA or simply changing the sorting mechanism.

So in the future, we can fold DNA to hide unwanted genes.