From Adam Hargreaves at The Conversation:
DNA sequencing technology is helping scientists unravel questions that humans have been asking about animals for centuries. By mapping out animal genomes, we now have a better idea of how the giraffe got its huge neck and why snakes are so long. Genome sequencing allows us to compare and contrast the DNA of different animals and work out how they evolved in their own unique ways.
But in some cases we’re faced with a mystery. Some animal genomes seem to be missing certain genes, ones that appear in other similar species and must be present to keep the animals alive. These apparently missing genes have been dubbed “dark DNA”. And its existence could change the way we think about evolution.
My colleagues and I first encountered this phenomenon when sequencing the genome of the sand rat (Psammomys obesus), a species of gerbil that lives in deserts. In particular we wanted to study the gerbil’s genes related to the production of insulin, to understand why this animal is particularly susceptible to type 2 diabetes.
But when we looked for a gene called Pdx1 that controls the secretion of insulin, we found it was missing, as were 87 other genes surrounding it. Some of these missing genes, including Pdx1, are essential and without them an animal cannot survive. So where are they? More.
One hopes that dark DNA will not meet the same fate as dark matter and dark energy: = all theory, no capture. Of course, in this case, the DNA must in principle exist*—unless development can take place in the absence of DNA, which is maybe a stretch.
*By contrast, if physicists are mistaken about certain aspects of our universe, dark matter and/or dark energy may not in fact exist. Think ether and phlogiston to get the picture.
See also: Researcher: DNA folding in Archaea very similar to complex cells. “It just blows my mind.”