Rose and I interviewed Dr. Casey Luskin a while back on the Knight and Rose Show about junk DNA. (We are still making episodes, but Rose is very busy with her D. Min degree, conference speaking, and teaching kids in her church). Casey told us about is how the progress of science is finding new functions for DNA that was thought to be “junk”. And he has a new post about it.

Here’s the new post from Evolution News.

Here’s the topic:

One of the most common functions of non-coding / junk DNA is to regulate gene expression. When a given non-coding / junk element is working properly, it regulates the gene it’s supposed to be regulating; it does its job, and nobody notices it. But what happens when a mutation arises in that junk DNA genetic element? Well, one common result is that it will affect expression of the gene, and the gene will no longer be regulated in the manner that it’s supposed to be regulated. This then leads to a disease. The disease associated with some junk DNA element is evidence of some useful function gone wrong, not no function at all. Let’s consider a few examples.

So, my understanding of junk DNA is that it is parts of the DNA that does not code for proteins. People really think that the only parts of DNA that are useful are the parts that contain instructions for making more proteins. Darwinists dismiss the non-coding parts of DNA as “junk”. Just leftovers from supposed evolution that doesn’t do anything useful.

One of the studies he quotes explains it like this:

While the coding genes provide blueprints for building proteins, which direct most of the body’s functions, some of the noncoding sections of the genome, including regions previously dismissed as “junk,” seem to turn up or down the expression of those genes.

The way I understand this is by thinking of a cookbook. The coding parts of the cookbook talk about what ingredients you need and how much of each you need. For some reason, people thought that this is the best part of the cookbook, the part about the ingredients. In this cookbook analogy, the Darwinists might think that the part about what to do with the ingredients is just “junk”. Stuff like the actual recipe steps, where to cook it, what temperature to use, how long to cook it for, and so on.

So what does the non-coding part of the DNA do that gives it “function” (makes it useful). Well, he has examples, and one of them is some “junk DNA” that regulates gene expression. What happens when that junk DNA gets bad mutations, changing the instructions?

This:

This junk DNA element contains an enhancer that helps regulate the gene ETS2, but mutations in that region deleteriously affect gene regulation, potentially causing various diseases.

You can imagine if your cookbook had a recipe that said “set the oven the 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and put the chicken breasts in for 30 minutes.” But then a mutation happened, and suddenly the so-called junk part of the cookbook said: “set the oven the 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and put the chicken breasts in for 300 minutes.” You would not get a good result from that. That part of the recipe is not junk! It’s important.

He has a bunch more examples, including how mistakes in the non-coding DNA causes increased susceptibility to certain psychiatric disorders.

I thought it was an interesting add-on to our episode, because it explains what a useful non-coding function would look like.

Here is his conclusion:

In other words, once again, the “junk DNA” is functional. That is reflected by the fact that when you mess with the “junk,” the result is problems. That doesn’t sound like junk DNA to me.

If you missed the episode, you can get the MP3 here, and the YouTube episode is here.