Page 522 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3

after cell division) from a yeast chromo-
some caused a cell cycle arrest. 90 This
indicates that telomeres help the cell
distinguish between intact chromo-

somes and damaged DNA. In those
cells which recovered from the arrest
without repairing the damaged chro-
mosome, the chromosome was eventu-

ally lost. This also demonstrates that
telomeres belonging to non-coding
DNA are necessary to maintain chromo-
some stability.

5. The discovery of non-coding
DNA's role in the development of an
embryo

There is proof that during develop-

ment, non-coding DNA plays a major
role in regulating the gene expression
(the process by which a gene's coded in-
formation is converted into the struc-
tures present and operating in the

cell). 91 Various studies have shown that
non-coding DNA plays a role in the de-
92
velopment of photoreceptor cells , of
93
the reproductive tract , and the central
nervous system. 94 All this shows that non-coding DNA plays vital roles in embryogenesis, or embryonic
development.

6. Introns (considered as junk DNA segments) have been shown to play a vital role in cell func-
tioning.

For years, evolutionists thought introns, which are squeezed between functional genes and are spliced
out in the process of producing proteins, to be junk DNA, but only later discovered their importance.
At first, evolutionists thought that introns had no role in the production of proteins and regarded them
as merely junk. However, research has proven that they play a vitally important role and today, introns are
recognized as "a complex mix of different DNA, much of which are vital to the life of the cell." 95

A short but interesting article in the science column of The New York Times exposed the errors of evolu-
tionists with regard to introns. In "DNA: Junk or Not?," C. Claiborne Ray sums up the results of research on

introns:
For years, more and more research has, in fact, suggested that introns are not junk but influence how genes

work. . . introns do have active roles. 96

This article emphasizes that in the light of the latest scientific developments, supposedly "junk DNA"
like introns really do play a useful role in the life of organisms.
All these developments not only reveal new information about non-coding DNA, but also clearly point
to the very important fact that the evolutionist concept of junk DNA was based on lack of knowledge and

"ignorance" as Evan Eichler admitted. 97

520 Atlas of Creation Vol. 3