Friday, August 24, 2012

The DNA Molecule's Miraculous Structure


In discussing the chemical structure of the DNA molecule, our objective is not simply to provide the kind of information you can find in a great many books on biology, but to show the details in human creation and the extremely sensitive order on which our existence depends–and thus, to properly appreciate our Lord's greatness and His mercy upon us.
Some people prefer to remain far removed from technical details and don't want to tire their minds with them. But they reflect that same superficial perspective in their analyses, comments and statements. In fact, there is sublime wisdom in every detail of creation, and each of those details has been created for a specific purpose. In one verse of the Qur'an our Lord tells us that:
We did not create the heavens and Earth and everything between them, except with truth. The Hour is certainly coming, so turn away graciously. Your Lord, He is the Creator, the All-Knowing.  (Surat al-Hijr, 85-86)
Let's examine some of the details in the creation of the DNA in the trillions of cells inside every one of the billions of people on Earth.

Chemical Structure of the DNA Helix

A. Adenine
G. Guanine
T. Thymine
C. Cytosine
The giant molecule of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) that plays a role in all the cell's vital functions consists of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and phosphate atoms. There are billions of these atoms in a single human DNA molecule,14 all arranged in a manner particular to that individual.
DNA is an acronym of the words deoxyribo, nucleic and acid that express the molecule's chemical structure. This molecule in the nucleus of every human cell consists of nucleic acid arranged in a helix shape like a miniature sphere just 5 microns in diameter.15 (One micron equals one thousandth of a millimeter.) Nucleic acids are exceedingly important compounds, despite making up only 2% of our bodies. The basic structural units of nucleic acids are nucleotides. Some 6 billion nucleotides combine in the double helix that gives rise to DNA.16
The DNA molecule's structure resembles a spiral staircase, and its architectural regularity amazes scientists. The sides of the staircase, made up of various sugars and phosphates, represent the DNA molecule's dual backbones. The steps, on the other hand, consist of pairs of four conjoined chemical substances known as bases: adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine. Bases are molecules consisting of between 12 and 16 atoms including carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen.17 These chemicals are also specially arranged on the DNA spiral. Only two combinations of arrangements are possible: adenine (A) always bonds to thymine (T), and cytosine (C) always bonds to guanine (G).18
Scientists have established the special sequence in which the atoms making up DNA give rise to nucleotides. But knowing the structure of the building blocks of life is not the same thing as producing them. Indeed, although the correct materials–atoms and the technology to combine them–are available to scientists, they are utterly incapable of making a living DNA molecule. In the Qur'an our Lord reveals that:
It is He Who gives life and causes to die. When He decides on something, He just says to it, "Be!" and it is. (Surah Ghafir, 68)
Your deity is Allah alone, there is no deity but Him. He encompasses all things in His knowledge'. (Surah Ta Ha, 98)
A special creation is evident in the arrangements of the atoms. Every nucleotide contains some 34 atoms. Since there are 6 billion nucleotides in DNA, 204 billion atoms (34 times 6,000,000,000) need to combine chemically to form a single DNA molecule.19 Were you able to process one atom a second and worked eight hours a day for 350 days a year, it would still take you longer than 20,000 years to produce a single DNA molecule.20 Since this is beyond the capacity of even rational human beings, can anyone imagine that the DNA molecule came into existence by chance? Such a thing is of course out of the question. In addition, bear in mind that in the absence of DNA molecules, living things could not exist. Indeed, the slightest error in DNA's structure gives rise to very serious consequences, as the well-known science writer Richard Milton describes:
… [E]ach nucleotide has to be "written" in precisely the correct order and in precisely the correct location in the DNA molecule for the offspring to remain viable, and as described earlier, major functional disorders in humans, animals, and plants are caused by the loss or displacement of a single DNA molecule, or even a single nucleotide within that molecule.21
Every base sequence in the DNA strip–the arrangement of the nucleotides adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine in the cell nucleus–constitutes a genetic text containing information needed for the building of essential proteins. From that point of view, it is noteworthy that DNA maintains its regular structure on the one hand while on the other having an arrangement that permits information diversity.
A - Adenine, T - Thymine,
G - Guanine, S - Cytosine
Every nucleotide contains roughly 34 atoms. Since there are a total of 6 billion nucleotides in DNA, 204 billion atoms (34 times 6,000,000,000) are bonded to one another, by our Lord's choosing, in such a way as to constitute a human being.

The DNA Strip is Wound around Bobbins

A single DNA strip in human cells consists of around 3 billion base pairs and is approximately 2 meters long. Both chains of that length need to be reduced in size to dimensions invisible to the eye. Similarly to the way in which a long thread is wound around a reel, the DNA is packaged and installed in the nucleus through a similar cellular mechanism. The DNA strip is packaged by being wound around nucleosomes, which give rise to chromosomes. The job of the nucleosomes is undertaken by proteins known as histones.
There is a 15-turn section of the DNA spiral in one nucleosome; and this is the length of 150 nucleotides.22 This 15-turn section is wound twice around a protein nucleus, made up of eight histones containing a large number of positively charged amino acids. These perfectly complement the negatively charged phosphates on the DNA. When information written anywhere on the DNA is needed for protein production, the nucleosome opens and the DNA strip is released for "reading." After this, the DNA winds back around the histones, protected from the damaging effects of the molecules around it, until the next time need arises. Genetic data require not just content, but also a sensitive order in their structure and in the features of the surrounding environment.
This order is just one of the works of our Almighty Lord, Creator of the Earth and sky. In one verse, we are told that:
... My Lord is kind to anyone He wills. He is indeed All-Knowing and All-Wise. (Surah Yusuf, 100)
The DNA Molecule is one of The Proofs of Allah's Creation

1. Sugar Phosphate
2. Hydrogen bond
3. Phosphate
4. Sugar
5. Cytosine
6. Adenine
7. Guanine
8. Thymine
9. Nucleotides
In the DNA strip, every base sequence–adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine–represents a genetic text in the cell nucleus. Each of these steps contains the information required for the building of essential proteins.  DNA resembles a very regular spiral staircase. Such a regular structure is made possible by a "backbone" made up of sugar and phosphate, and the special arrangement of the amino acids constitute the steps between them.  The molecular biologist Rosalind Franklin and the biochemist Erwin Chargaff, two of those who contributed to the discovery of the structure of DNA, discovered that as a result of this arrangement, the amount of the base adenine always corresponds to that of the base thymine, and that the amount of the base guanine is always equal to that of cytosine.1 This is just another indication that there is no room for chance in DNA's unique creation. 1- L.R. Croft, How Life Began, The Evangelical Press, 1988, p. 34.

Genes: Data Packages

A single cell nucleus, invisible to our eyes, contains a DNA strip that is 4 meters (13.12 feet) long, packaged inside the nucleus in the form of groups known as "chromosomes" The nuclei of the cells in your body contain a total of 23 chromosome pairs. When chromosomes are magnified under an electron microscope, the DNA molecule inside these chromosomes are seen to be compressed in a spiral form. Despite occupying a very small volume, this packaging system possesses a stunning data-storage capacity, as you'll see in a later chapter.


Left Top:
1. Centromere
2- Chromosomes
3. DNA
1- DNA Molecule
2- DNA's Double Helix
3- Base
4- 2 nm
5- Curves
6- Histone
7- Chromatin compressed 
into a helix shape



Thanks to its three-dimensional form and electrical charge distribution, the protein histone permits DNA to curve around itself and store information. For that reason, DNA's data-storage capacity is several trillion times greater than that of the most advanced computer chip.1(1- Stephen C. Meyer, The Intercollegiate Review 31, No. 2, Spring 1996.)
DNA strips contain all the information required to form proteins of all kinds–enzymes, molecular motors, hormones and other building blocks.23 The information encoded in the DNA molecule determines the symmetrical formation of the eyes and ears, the pumping of blood by the heart, the transportation of oxygen to the cells via that blood, the gastric acid that breaks down foodstuffs, and all the body's other physical features. There are around eighty thousand of these kinds of information packets, known as genes, in the human body.24



1- Chromosomes,
2- DNA Molecule ,
3- Cell Nucleus,
When the spiral structure of DNA inside the cell nucleus is opened out, the DNA assumes a very thin, strip-like form several meters in length. The way that it is packaged inside a nucleus far too small to be seen with the naked eye, is only possible with Allah's so choosing.
If the total amount of genetic information–the genome, in other words–is compared to a library, every book in that library represents a chromosome, and the chapters in the books are genes. Genes are rather like the headings in a giant encyclopedia, containing a detailed blueprint of a human being's biologic characteristics.25
The chromosomes passed on by way of inheritance are determined by the different arrangements of the four chemical bases constituting the DNA steps. Thousands of these steps, or base pairs, constitute a single gene. James Watson, one of the co-discoverers of DNA's structure, notes that base sequences are the source of the differences in genes:
The four nucleotides were not however, completely different, for each contained the same sugar and phosphate components. Their uniqueness lay in their nitrogenous bases, which were either a purine (adenine and guanine) or a pyrimidine (cytosine and thymine) . . . If the base sequences were always the same, all DNA molecules would be identical. And there would not exist the variability that must distinguish one gene from another.26
From these four base sequences, Allah has created billions of different human beings and keeps creating. Thanks to the flawless order that Allah created in DNA, human beings emerge with a detailed and complex structure and the rich characteristics they possess. In verse 45 of Surat an-Nur it is revealed that:
… Allah creates whatever He wills. Allah has power over all things. (Surat An-Nur, 45)

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