I'm confused because I thought genes working together were responsible for producing proteins but we now find out that a type of protein, 'Fanzors', "can be reprogrammed to edit the genome of human cells".
I'm not entirely clear which is directing the other? Also not clear what's been found to happen in nature and how this can be used technologically in medical therapies.
Too busy just now to try to disentangle this but how would you summarise the discovery?
Classic Central Dogma
We now know that a lot of times DNA is transcribed into RNA but without the RNA being translated into a protein. Instead, the RNA will interact with other molecules including DNA itself to regulate gene expression by switching genes on and off, and edit DNA itself by splicing DNA in different locations, inserting new genetic material, clipping out sections of DNA, or preventing such actions altogether
RNA strands with genome editing capabilities have been known in bacteria (CRSPR). We now know a new class of RNA editors in eukaryotes (fungi, plants, animals, protozoa)
Modified Central Dogma
As far as which is directing the other, yep, that's the circular, self-referential causality logic and problem of living systems. Yes, it creates a host of chicken-or-egg problems. A famous (RNA-protein) example, is the Eigen Paradox
*The spontaneous chance origin of one RNA replicating strand is a 'miracle' in itself
*The spontaneous chance origin of a second RNA strand to serve as template for said replicating RNA strand is a second miracle
*The independent spontaneous chance origin of one or more error repair protein-enzymes is a third miracle
*Then somehow reverse writing the instructions for those protein-repair enzymes back into the RNA genetic material is not simply a fourth miracle, but logically inconceivable
Ground breaking news
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230628/First-programmable-RNA-guided-system-found-in-eukaryotes.aspx