Getting Around to Circular RNAs

In the 1970s, molecular biology was quickly growing. Unfortunately, scientists brought a prairie schooner-full of assumptions with them instead of being objective. DNA was getting sequenced and a large section of it was labeled as "junk" leftover from our alleged evolutionary past.

There are classes of RNAs that are puzzling, and they are are not always linear. Some RNAs were considered junk because they did not code for proteins, but some were involved in that after all. In reality, scientific hubris was defeated because RNAs have important functions. Then circular RNAs were discovered.

Metabolism of circular RNA, Wikimedia Commons / Wei-Yi Zhou (CC BY 4.0)

There are three classes of circRNAs (so far). They surprised researchers by setting up camp in unexpected areas of genes. Their functions are quite complex, and like other things, have a say in gene expression. Mayhaps if secularists realized that there is a Master Engineer who put things in their places for good reasons, research would not be hindered with their biases. After all, the specified complexity of what is being study testifies against evolutionary processes.

If the regulatory picture of the genome were not complicated enough, over the past decade scientists have discovered another level of Darwinian-defying biocomplexity involving a whole new class of molecules in the form of RNA hoops or circles. In fact, the findings were so startling that one researcher commented that the molecules form “a hidden, parallel universe” in which many new types and functions remain to be discovered. What are these remarkable RNA molecules?

The rest of the article is located at "RNA Hoops: When Circular Reasoning Makes Sense." You may also be interested in this post on MicroRNAs.