Junk DNA: goodbye!: A new book (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, April 17, 2015, 15:16 (3509 days ago) @ David Turell

The book is Junk DNA:-Nessa Carey
Columbia University Press, March 2015- "Can we please stop calling non-protein-coding DNA “junk?” We've had more than a decade—since researchers first sequenced the human genome in 2001—to come to grips with the fact that 98 percent of our DNA doesn't get translated directly into proteins. And in the intervening years, what was initially considered perplexingly abundant detritus has evolved into a wondrous genomic landscape that hasn't disappointed intrepid explorers. Imperial College London molecular biologist and author Nessa Carey details this transformation and the progress science has made in her latest book, Junk DNA.-"Carey examines the importance of noncoding DNA, from its role in controlling gene expression to the ways in which it influences RNA behavior, disease progression, and sex determination. Although we can now be sure that 98 percent of the human genome is anything but junk, researchers are only just beginning to fully appreciate the complex influence of all that once-maligned genomic material.-"Junk DNA serves as a nice primer for the still-uninitiated, but here's to hoping that continued research, and the emerging view that genomes behave like networks rather than a string of isolated genes, soon relegates the J-word to the junk pile of science history."-http://cup.columbia.edu/book/junk-dna/9780231170840