A few weeks ago I tweeted about palindromes and discovered that palindromes are more than words. They are sequences found in our DNA. As expressed in the post below, they are part of “the language of God.”
Dr. Noel Childers is the Joseph F. Volker Professor, Chair of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, 
University of Alabama at Birmingham and also happens to be a co-teacher with me for our Sunday School class. I discovered his interest in palindromes comes from research that holds potential for medical advances in dentistry and beyond. I asked Noel to explain what he is doing with palindromes.
Palindromes in DNA by Noel Childers
I will start this by saying that a molecular biologist, I am not, and what I say may be oversimplified and even wrong in some cases. Nonetheless DNA (and RNA) has some interesting palindromes with very important purposes.
I will start by quoting that DNA is “The language of God” as is the title of a book by Francis Collins and it is a lot more than the code of the genes that are needed for life. DNA is “double stranded” but those strands (made up of nucleic acids) are separate and only associate under very specific conditions. The two strands line up with nucleic acids that naturally associate to each other. There are only 4 of these nucleic acids: Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, and Guanine=A, T, C, G, respectively. A pairs with T and C pairs with G, so for the DNA to form double strands, they have to be of the “complimentary” sequence. For example ATTCGCGTAACGGTT would be complimentary to TAAGCGCATTGCCAA.
Of course the DNA code is millions of these sequences but one important characteristic in these codes are palindromes! There may be a short sequence code (4-20) that is common with a palindrome of the same sequence but opposite in alignment (“backwards”) and separated by other sequences. The exact functions of these palindromes are not completely understood but they naturally form shapes in the DNA molecules by folding back and making loops and “bow ties” (when single stranded) that serve some function, like signaling a gene to turn on or do something else. RNA is similar in many ways to DNA but the code is different (uracil substitutes for thymine) and also has a lot of palindromes, especially a specialized RNA called transfer RNA. This RNA takes on a shape that specifically attaches to an amino acid (the building block of proteins) and carries it to its place to be used to make protein.
While there are probably a multitude of functions of palindromes in DNA/RNA that are vastly unknown, there are some palindromes that are fairly common and fall at variable places in bacteria. Because of this we can track bacteria from an epidemiological perspective. In other words, if a child is infected with bacteria that cause cavities, we are interested in whether the child got their “infection” from mother, father, sibling, friend or someone else… The bacteria we study is associated with cavities and is unique to humans so the infections comes from another human… Therefore, we take samples of dental plaque from many children as well as their family members and classmates.
Many of the children in the study are highly susceptible to severe cavities because they live in rural Alabama where it is hard to find a dentist (they have to drive at least 30 miles to find a dentist). We are following them in a long-term study in which we give them preventive care while studying the “Epidemiology of Dental Caries and Immunity in Children” (A NIH grant – your tax $$ at work:-). The method we use is called repetitive extragenic palindromic polymerase chain reaction (rep-PCR).
Noel speaks a language that most of us don’t understand, but as believers we can appreciate study of “the language of God” in the hopes of finding ways to reduce cavities and other infections. So when you are enjoying a palindrome found in a word or phrase, remember the DNA research of Noel and other scientists. Pray they are successful, even beyond their expectations.
