(May 7, 2016 at 9:32 am)bennyboy Wrote: I was reading this:
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/04/health...index.html
And it got me to thinking. . . there must be a genetic pattern for a "toe," and then a counter of some type. So you could arbitrarily (I assume) program a DNA sequence to have any number of toes or fingers, and yet, magically, they "turn out." The baby's toes all look good, he's just got the wrong number of them.
In other words, the human body actually isn't completely represented in the DNA, but as a sequence of instructions ABOUT a human body-- for example, how many toes it should have.
Stuff to think about.
Regarding the OP, I'm fairly certain it is more complicated than merely "re-programming" the DNA sequence. There are factors and signals external to the genetic code that direct gene expression (see: Epigenetics). In other words, you can alter the genetic expression of cells and organisms without any change to the DNA sequence itself, but rather to the non-genetic "codes" of the DNA strand (e.g. methyl groups, DNA packaging and coiing, etc.), and these changes can be passed on to the cell's progeny. I don't have the best understanding of the mechanisms, but I'm fairly certain there are also non-base-pair "codes" on the DNA molecule itself.
