TY  - JOUR
T1  - RNa silencing in surgical disease
AU  - Arya J, Cha JY, Banerjee A, Harken AH
Y1  - 2003/10/01
N1  - 10.1001/archsurg.138.10.1145
JO  - Archives of Surgery
SP  - 1145
EP  - 1147
VL  - 138
IS  - 10
N2  - 
Each of our cells contains a complete copy of the genes required to create a whole organism. Thus, it was possible to clone Dolly from a single sheep epidermal cell, and we should be able to reconstruct a dinosaur from the genetic material buried in the mud of "Jurassic Park." However, it is hard to believe that by adding water to the $5 worth of chemicals in a human, it is possible to create a human being. Although 30 000 instructions, or genes, sounds like a lot, the creation of a hand or a heart or a mind is still a daunting task. Our current genetic code is a lot like the King James Bible— both have evolved. The travails of Moses or Noah were initially "transcribed" by clerics into huge books safely stored in cathedral vaults. With frightening frequency, these imaginative priests "improved" the story as they wrote. The testaments were then "translated" into many languages to enhance access by many peoples. These translations were found, and the data enjoyed further incremental evolution. In eukaryotes, the functional DNA rarely leaves the safety of the nuclear cathedral vault. Traditionally, we have envisioned the Gideon messengers as transcribing reliable molecular copies and distributing them out to motel rooms. While chromosomes are made of double-stranded DNA comprising millions of nucleotide pairs, single-strand messenger RNA (mRNA) carries only single verses, requiring a nucleotide code of only 50 to several thousand nucleotides. Ribosomal RNA synthesizes protein from the mRNA script, while transfer RNA serves an adaptor role in converting the message to protein.1

SN  - 0004-0010
M3  - doi: 10.1001/archsurg.138.10.1145
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archsurg.138.10.1145
ER  -