Junk DNA goodbye!: control of genes on and off (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Tuesday, July 24, 2018, 02:26 (2103 days ago) @ David Turell

The latest finding:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-07-imaging-cells-reveals-junk-dna.html

"These pieces of DNA are part of over 90 percent of the genetic material that are not genes. Researchers now know that this "junk DNA" contains most of the information that can turn on or off genes. But how these segments of DNA, called enhancers, find and activate a target gene in the crowded environment of a cell's nucleus is not well understood.

"Now a team led by researchers at Princeton University has captured how this happens in living cells. The video allows researchers to see the enhancers as they find and connect to a gene to kick-start its activity.

***

"As their name suggests, enhancers switch on the expression of other genes. In the mammalian genome, there are an estimated 200,000 to 1 million enhancers, and many are located far away on the DNA strand from the gene they regulate, raising the question of how the regulatory segments can locate and connect with their target genes.

"Many previous studies on enhancers were conducted on non-living cells because of the difficulty in imaging genetic activity in living organisms. Such studies give only snapshots in time and can miss important details.

"In the new study, researchers used imaging techniques developed at Princeton to track the position of an enhancer and its target gene while simultaneously monitoring the gene's activity in living fly embryos.

"'This study provides the unique opportunity to observe in real time how two regions of DNA interact with each other," said Michal Levo, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Lewis-Sigler Institute. "We can monitor in time where the enhancer and the gene are physically located and simultaneously measure the gene's activity in an attempt to relate these processes."

***

"As their name suggests, enhancers switch on the expression of other genes. In the mammalian genome, there are an estimated 200,000 to 1 million enhancers, and many are located far away on the DNA strand from the gene they regulate, raising the question of how the regulatory segments can locate and connect with their target genes.

"Many previous studies on enhancers were conducted on non-living cells because of the difficulty in imaging genetic activity in living organisms. Such studies give only snapshots in time and can miss important details.

"In the new study, researchers used imaging techniques developed at Princeton to track the position of an enhancer and its target gene while simultaneously monitoring the gene's activity in living fly embryos.

"'This study provides the unique opportunity to observe in real time how two regions of DNA interact with each other," said Michal Levo, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Lewis-Sigler Institute. "We can monitor in time where the enhancer and the gene are physically located and simultaneously measure the gene's activity in an attempt to relate these processes.'"

David Comment: Once again we see that the 3-D relationships are very important in how sections of DNA relate to each other. 80% of DNA is useful.

I suspect more than 80%.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.