Do we know anything about the “programming language” of DNA? I don’t have a better term than programming language, but what I mean is the A’s and T’s, C’s and G’s encode certain proteins (we know this much: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GeneticCode21-version-2.svg). But do we know how all these various proteins are read and translated into actually making an organism?
What reads all these proteins and determines that it means “make two legs, with 5 toes on each foot”? Something in the programming language must understand how all this data is translated into making 4 fingers and a thumb, or making a dorsal fin, or making a nose that can smell 1000 times better than a human nose. Could we rewrite the DNA to make someone have 100 fingers on each hand? If DNA can code for 5 fingers, why not 100?
I know we know enough to identify certain genes and sometimes we can splice them into other animal’s DNA. Sheep whose milk produces spider silk etc. But what reads the particular section of DNA and translates that into making spider silk? Could I sit down and make DNA that would cause an organism to produce acetaminophen? Do we know how this would work? There has to be some underlying “language” to this, right?
I’m not sure the question is entirely clear… What reads and understands the sequence of proteins produced by DNA and figures out that it means “grow two eyes here” or “grow a furry tail here”? A programming language is the best analogy i can think of.