What are the duties of phosphorus in the body?
How does the alarm system work that sets off when the phosphorus level in the body decreases?
What kind of precautions are taken by the body when this alarm sets off?
Understanding and appreciating the wonder in a certain structure or an artifact requires getting detailed information and thinking deeply about it.
This situation is the same for the human body which has many wonderful properties. If humans do not learn these details and think about them deeply, they cannot notice the miracles they live side by side at every moment. However, many extraordinary things occur in the human body, whether it’s when he’s afraid from a car while crossing the street, when he gets the flu, when his blood pressure rises, or when he comes across a friend and greets him. In seconds or milliseconds, the molecules which can not be seen by the human eye works like bees inside the human body and accomplishes very complicated things that need high levels of expertise that even the related person cannot understand or comprehend. A very precious raw material performs an enormous task like this in our cells. This raw material is phosphorus. Many awe inspiring systems are created in the cell for finding, eradicating, moving, processing and storing phosphorus. Each one of these systems is required by the body for the continuation of our survival.
Awe inspiring Duties of Phosphorus in the body
Phosphorus, which composes of 3 percent of the dry weight of living beings, has many duties for defending the vital processes of the cell.1
It is the basic constituent of the DNA, which is the memory bank of the cell and the RNA.
It can be found in fats, proteins, and sugars.2
The whole energy circle of the cell depends on this material.
Takes the role in the production of letters which constitutes Membranes and information.
Used in photosynthesis, respiration, and in the control of many enzymes.3
The operation of entering and using of phosphorus in the cell is under the control of a detailed process.
Indefinite amount of enzymes combine the phosphorus with other atoms under their control, to produce certain compounds for the cell.4
Stored Phosphorus
In order to get them quickly, humans store certain materials they see as essential in the depots they hire and they put their important equipment in them. Phosphorus is used by bacteria in a similar system. 85 percent of the phosphorus is stored in the bones as phosphate chains.5 Bacteria use these stores when the need arises. However, the phosphate chain is not a store molecule. Scientists found that the phosphate chain has an essential role in the cells for some controlling actions.6
How does the alarm system works?
In the bacteria, if the phosphate levels decrease under a certain level, an alarm bells starts to ring. An enormous system begins to take emergency measures. In implementing these emergency measures, many genes help each other to get rid of the danger which threaten the cell. Like the fire alarm when a fire occurs, a special kind of molecule goes into a state of emergency after the phospate levels decrease under a certain level. This Protein is named PhoR, it transmits this emergency information to a second protein. The protein named PHoB acts immediately like it understand the danger and starts the emergency measures. To achieve this, it increases or stops the production of some genes in the DNA.7 It is a natural truth that molecules cannot do these things which needs intelligence to achieve. Allah inspires in these molecules what to do, how to do it and when to do it. Allah states that every being acts with His inspiration,
I have put my trust in Allah, my Lord and your Lord. There is no creature He does not hold by the forelock. My Lord is on a Straight Path. (Surah Hud, 56)
What kind of precautions are taken for low phosphorus levels?
- Miracle of Changing Shape
Bacteria take very extreme measures to prevent the situation of low phosphorus. Only one of these systems is enough to show how degenerate the theory of evolution is, which only believes in coincidences. Some bacteria change their shape with the decrease of phosphorus levels. In that way, they change the ratio between their surfaces and volumes to get in touch more with the external environment so they can provide phosphate more easily.8
- Use of different Materials
Conscious change in the production system is another smart method. Phosphate rich compounds, which can be find on the cell wall, exchange with alternative materials which do not have phosphate in them. Use of this method by a small bacteria in a perfect manner is a formidable thing. These superior properties manifesting on the bacteria, are some of the manifestations of Allah's superior power.
- Special Chemicals spread to the environment
Some bacteria spread certain chemicals to the environment when the amount of phosphate decreases. These chemicals help in ripping out phosphate from the compounds in the environment.9
- Increasing the production of the Phosphate Gate
One of the precautions taken in the body when the phosphate in the environment decreases is by increasing the production of the gates which the phosphate enters to the cell.10 This increase makes the phosphate entering the cell more easily.
Conclusion:
Researchers on bacteria show that about 400 genes become active when the phosphate levels decrease.11 Scientists calculate the number of genes that are activated amounts to 10 percent of the bacteria gene. Although all of the details of the system is still not known, the things researchers discovered shows just how the human body is created in a superior creation.
The system of phosphorus supply is one of the examples that proves that it is impossible for living things to develop in stages. Only one error in one of these genes can impede the system to fullfill its duty.
This kind of living being, which would not have fully developed systems, cannot grow. It will just die. Finding out how these systems work is generally based on this principle. Some of the genes in a perfectly functioning system mutated and the duty of these genes can be established by looking at deaths and malfunctions resulting from this mutation. Absence of one of the parts that we examined above will result in the death of the living being. Like the other environmental circumstances, the absence of phosphate results in death. Each one of these systems refutes evolution and proves Creation. All the systems of providing phosphate in the bacteria is just one example from Allah's unequalled art of creation. Allah states this fact in one of the verses of the Qur’an like this:
Say: ‘Have you thought about your partner gods, those you call upon besides Allah? Show Me what they have created of the earth; or do they have a partnership in the heavens?’ Have We given them a Book whose clear signs they follow? No indeed! The wrongdoers promise each other nothing but delusion. (Surah Fatir, 40)
1- (White Andrea K; Metcalf William W, Microbial metabolism of reduced phosphorus compounds., Annual review of microbiology 2007;61:379-400)
2- (Lamarche MG, Wanner BL, Crépin S, Harel J., The phosphate regulon and bacterial virulence: a regulatory network connecting phosphate homeostasis and pathogenesis., FEMS microbiology reviews, Vol. 32, No. 3. (May 2008), pp. 461-473)
3- (Phosphate Acquisition, K. G. Raghothama, Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 1999. 50:665–693)
4- (White Andrea K; Metcalf William W, Microbial metabolism of reduced phosphorus compounds., Annual review of microbiology 2007;61:379-400)
5- (Phosphorus Metabolism and its Regulation, Volker F. Wendish and Michael Bott, Book that contains this article: Corynebacteria Genomics and Molecular Biology edited by Andreas Burkowski, Caister Academics Press, (2008), p. 209)
6- (Kornberg A, Rao NN, Ault-Riché D., Inorganic polyphosphate: a molecule of many functions., Annu. Rev. Biochem. 1999. 68:89–125)
7- (Lamarche MG, Wanner BL, Crépin S, Harel J., The phosphate regulon and bacterial virulence: a regulatory network connecting phosphate homeostasis and pathogenesis., FEMS microbiology)
8- (Lamarche MG, Wanner BL, Crépin S, Harel J., The phosphate regulon and bacterial virulence: a regulatory network connecting phosphate homeostasis and pathogenesis., FEMS microbiology)
9- (Vershinina OA, ZnamenskaiaLV. 2002. The Pho regulons of bacteria. Microbiology, Vol. 71, No. 5, 2002, pp. 497–511. Translated from Mikrobiologiya, Vol. 71, No. 5, 2002, pp. 581–595)
10- (Meire Aguena, Beny Spira, Transcriptional Processing of the pst Operon of Escherichia coli, Curr Microbiol (2009) 58:264–267)
11- (Lamarche MG, Wanner BL, Crépin S, Harel J., The phosphate regulon and bacterial virulence: a regulatory network connecting phosphate homeostasis and pathogenesis., FEMS microbiology reviews, Vol. 32, No. 3. (May 2008), pp. 464)
