Computer microbes
Virtual infection: A purely scientific infectionModular Mechanics
Numerous databases containing DNA sequences of different organisms known to us can be subject to attacks of virtual infections.
Not so long ago, Rachel O'Neill and her collaborators, after reviewing the publicly available established genomes of microorganisms, came to the disappointing and even alarming conclusion that up to 20% of their composition are fragments of human DNA – apparently, got into the analyzed samples during elementary contamination.
Now the situation is even more confusing: British researchers William Langdon (William Langdon) and Matthew Arno (Matthew Arno) announced that sequences characteristic of extremely simple bacteria, mycoplasmas, are found in the human genome database.
The fact of such contamination, if confirmed, can have very far-reaching consequences. After all, the same data on the sequence of human DNA, obtained during the grandiose work of geneticists, is used by scientists, pharmacists, and doctors. In particular, they form the basis of DNA chips, with the help of which scientists and doctors accurately determine the level of activity of certain genes. According to Langdon and Arno, they analyzed several such microchips sold by biotech companies and found that two of them contain fragments of mycoplasma DNA. It turns out that anyone who uses them to measure the expression of human genes will also measure the expression of bacterial genes.
In a sense, these observations are hardly a surprise. As the authors of the work note, "it is well known how widespread mycoplasma contamination is in biological laboratories." However, they raise an extremely intriguing question about the essence of this "pollution" that appeared in the human genome database.
Computer modeling shows that mycoplasma genes are extremely successfully preserved and reproduced in such virtual genomes, in silico. According to the researchers, it may be worth saying that we are dealing with a completely new type of "information infection". Disguising and adapting, alien "genes" hide and spread from one database to another, in the manner of a virtual infection. This means that we may well be afraid that – even if they exist as a sequence of bits in the computer's memory – these "infectious agents" will persist, spread and evolve.
Moreover, even today, according to Langdon and Arno, the level of "pollution" and the speed of its spread indicate that we are losing the battle with this new danger. Our tools, and moreover, the approaches and views themselves, are no longer suitable for effectively countering such "gene–computer infections" in which perfectly preserved, maximized, reproducible sequences developed over billions of years of evolution step over the barrier of the virtual world and begin to operate in completely new conditions.
The worst thing is that the authors of the work may have opened only the very top of the upper part of the iceberg, because they worked with only two suspicious DNA sequences from mycoplasma, and how many of them may actually be? If we take Langdon and Arnaud's desperate statements seriously, scientists will have to open a new front in the fight against microorganisms – in addition to the real, also virtual.
According to the publication Physics arXiv Blog: Human Genome Contaminated With Mycoplasma DNA
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru28.06.2011