Useless is not the same as harmful, unfortunately. But, if things turn out as the researchers say, they now know what to target.
‘Junk DNA’
Supposed junk DNA serves as microlens for condensing light
A new study, we are told,”turns our picture of the nucleus upside down”.
Remember junk RNA? Cell division requires a balanced level of it
Researcher: These non-coding RNAs are once considered as “junk”. In recent years, however, researches have revealed vital roles of non-coding RNA, such as in gene regulation and maintaining chromosome structure
Protein turns jumping genes, once considered “junk DNA,” from “foes into friends”
What? It turns out it is not junk. It needs managing but it isn’t junk. “Our results reveal how a family of proteins that was long considered an oddity of nature, turns foes into friends,” says Didier Trono. And almost nothing the Darwinians told us is true.
RNA is no longer “worthless junk”; today’s revelations “unthinkable 20 years ago”
Rob Sheldon responds, “I think this is more than enough justification for the last 20 years of ID. Now can we get past the meme that ID isn’t science? That’s so 2005.” He is referring to the fact that the ID folk never thought it was junk. One reason the ID folk were supposed to be wrong was that junk DNA proved Darwinism.
More “junk DNA” that actually does something
The technical term is functional pseudogene and what it does in this case (creating sensitivity to pain) could be a mixed blessing, depending on your circumstances.
Are there “dark” neurons in the brain left over from a “Jurassic Park” past?
Notice that the neurons aren’t being called “junk neurons,” as in the exploded concept of vast libraries of “junk DNA.” Quite the contrary, they are given the somewhat glamorous cachet of “dark” neurons, as in “dark matter.” Perhaps something has been learned from the collapse of the concept of “junk DNA.”
Researchers: Male Y chromosome not a genetic wasteland after all
The Y chromosome has been notoriously difficult to sequence due to repetitive elements. Junk, right? Now, researchers from the University of Rochester have found a way to sequence a large portion of the Y chromosome in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster—the most that the Y chromosome has been assembled in fruit flies. The research, published […]
Noncoding (that is, “junk”) DNA helps cells avoid starvation
Some researchers wondered whether all that junk DNA supposedly left over from Darwinian evolution actually did something after all so they tested the idea: Patches of seemingly meaningless DNA dotted throughout the genome might actually have a function: helping cells to survive starvation. Two studies published in Nature on 16 January suggest that these stretches […]
Wouldn’t you know, jumping “junk DNA” can be lethal too
Researchers Nigel Goldenfeld and Thomas Kuhlman noticed that “half of the human genome is made up of retrotransposons [jumping genes, “junk DNA”], but bacteria hardly have them at all” and wondered what would happen if they just inserted some: “We thought a really simple thing to try was to just take one (retrotransposon) out of […]
Humans may have only 19,000 coding genes
And we are not sure which ones they are. From ScienceDaily: Research Centre (CNIO) reveals that up to 20% of genes classified as coding (those that produce the proteins that are the building blocks of all living things) may not be coding after all because they have characteristics that are typical of non-coding or pseudogenes […]
“Junk DNA” regulates regeneration of tissues and organs
From ScienceDaily: Scientists at the MDI Biological Laboratory and the University of Maine have discovered that genetic material in the cell that was previously thought to be “junk” because of its apparent lack of function likely plays a part in regulating genetic circuits responsible for regeneration in highly regenerative animals. … The discovery of these […]
How “useless junk” DNA switches on a target gene
From ScienceDaily: Researchers have captured video showing how pieces of DNA once thought to be useless can act as on-off switches for genes. 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 […]
Researchers: Almost one in five genes’ coding status is unresolved
Abstract: Seventeen years after the sequencing of the human genome, the human proteome is still under revision. One in eight of the 22 210 coding genes listed by the Ensembl/GENCODE, RefSeq and UniProtKB reference databases are annotated differently across the three sets. We have carried out an in-depth investigation on the 2764 genes classified as […]
Paul Nelson: Junk DNA is one of those propositions that have “just about the worst track record” in biology.
With respect to “A “junk DNA” jumping gene is critical for embryo cell development, philosopher of biology Paul Nelson writes to say, In personal correspondence over the past couple of years with a tenured geneticist at a major university who is a “junk DNA” proponent, I’ve pointed out that “x has no function” propositions in […]