Junk DNA: goodbye!: Review article (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, March 08, 2015, 14:55 (3330 days ago) @ David Turell

Excellent summary of the history of discovery in the analysis of human DNA. Junk and anti-junk proponents are discussed. What is seen is that more and more areas of non-coding do have other functions:-"As the scientists find new RNA molecules that look to be important, they are picking out a few to examine in close molecular detail. “I'm totally in love with this one,” Rinn said, standing at a whiteboard wall and drawing a looping line to illustrate yet another RNA molecule, one that he calls “firre.” The experiments that Rinn's team has run on firre suggest that it performs a spectacular lasso act, grabbing onto three different chromosomes at once and drawing them together. Rinn suspects that there are thousands of RNA molecules encoded in our genomes that perform similar feats: bending DNA, unspooling it, bringing it in contact with certain proteins and otherwise endowing it with a versatility it would lack on its own.-“It's genomic origami,” Rinn said about this theory. “In every cell, you have the same piece of paper. Stem cell, brain cell, liver cell, it's all made from the same piece of paper. How you fold that paper determines if you get a paper airplane or a duck. It's the shape that you fold it into that matters. This has to be the 3-D code of biology.”-"To some biologists, discoveries like Rinn's hint at a hidden treasure house in our genome. Because a few of these RNA molecules have turned out to be so crucial, they think, the rest of the noncoding genome must be crammed with riches. But to Gregory and others, that is a blinkered optimism worthy of Dr. Pangloss. They, by contrast, are deeply pessimistic about where this research will lead. Most of the RNA molecules that our cells make will probably not turn out to perform the sort of essential functions that hotair and firre do. Instead, they are nothing more than what happens when RNA-making proteins bump into junk DNA from time to time."-http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/magazine/is-most-of-our-dna-garbage.html?emc=edit_th_20150308&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=60788861&_r=0