{"version":"1.0","provider_name":"2022 Archive of RENATURED, Marina Zurkow's Research Blog","provider_url":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022","author_name":"Marina","author_url":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022\/blog\/author\/admin\/","title":"you thunk it was junk.","html":"I love people. This happened rather quickly - which is fantastic - the things scientists called 'junk' in our DNA are starting to reveal themselves. I love people for needing to dismiss things as junk, and simultaneously having a nagging \u00a0dogged curiosity: naah, that can't ALL be junk.\u00a0<\/em>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nTwo articles this month:\r\n
1. Time Mag<\/a>\r\n\r\nJunk<\/em>.\u00a0Barren<\/em>.\u00a0Non-functioning<\/em>.\u00a0Dark matter<\/em>. That\u2019s how scientists had described the 98% of human genome that lies between our 21,000 genes, ever since our DNA was first\u00a0sequenced<\/a>\u00a0about a decade ago. The disappointment in those descriptors was intentional and palpable.\r\n\r\nIt had been believed that the human genome \u2014 the underpinnings of the blueprint for the talking, empire-building, socially evolved species that we are \u2014 would be stuffed with sophisticated genes, coding for critical proteins of unparalleled complexity. But when all was said and done, and the Human Genome Project finally determined the entire sequence of our DNA in 2001, researchers found that the 3 billion base pairs that comprised our mere 21,000 genes made up a paltry 2% of the entire genome. The rest, geneticists acknowledged with unconcealed embarrassment, was an apparent biological wasteland.\r\n\r\nBut it turns out they were wrong. In an impressive series of more than 30 papers published in several journals, including\u00a0Nature<\/em>,\u00a0Genome Research<\/em>,\u00a0Genome Biology<\/em>,\u00a0Science<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Cell<\/em>, scientists now report that these vast stretches of seeming \u201cjunk\u201d DNA are actually the seat of crucial gene-controlling activity \u2014 changes that contribute to hundreds of common diseases. The new data come from the\u00a0Encyclopedia of DNA Elements<\/a>\u00a0project, or ENCODE, a $123 million endeavor begun by the\u00a0National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)<\/a>\u00a0in 2003, which includes 442 scientists in 32 labs around the world. \u00a0 MORE<\/a>\r\n\r\n <\/blockquote>\r\nNY Times, \"Bits of Mystery DNA, Far From \u2018Junk,\u2019 Play Crucial Role\"<\/a>\r\n
Now scientists have discovered a vital clue to unraveling these riddles. The human genome is packed with at least four million gene switches that reside in bits of DNA that once were dismissed as \u201cjunk\u201d but that turn out to play critical roles in controlling how cells, organs and other tissues behave. The discovery, considered a major medical and scientific breakthrough, has enormous implications for human health because many complex diseases appear to be caused by tiny changes in hundreds of gene switches.\u00a0MORE<\/a><\/blockquote>","type":"rich"}