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WORTH REPEATING. Non-coding DNA is "crucial for higher-order regulatory and constitutional functions of protein structural vocabulary." Hardly junk. https://lnkd.in/e-pJFM6 View in LinkedIn

CRUCIAL JUNK. "For decades, non-coding regions of the genome have been ignored or declared as ‘‘junk’’-DNA. Even the non-coding, repetitive DNA sequences which were interpreted as being ancient remnants of former evolutionary stages are now recognized as being of viral descent and crucial for higher-order regulatory and constitutional functions of protein structural vocabulary." https://lnkd.in/e-pJFM6 View in LinkedIn

NON-CODING DNA IMPLICATED IN TYPE II DIABETES. "Our studies illustrate how islet transcription factors interact functionally with the epigenome and provide systematic evidence that the dysregulation of islet enhancers is relevant to the mechanisms underlying type 2 diabetes." https://lnkd.in/ehcd6t4 View in LinkedIn

NON-CODING DNA IS VIRAL. "New research has shown that these non-coding repetitive sequences originated primarily from retroviral RNA. In this way, thousands of endogenous retroviral sequences have been integrated into the human genome, with 22 independent retroviral families currently having been identified." https://lnkd.in/e-pJFM6 View in LinkedIn

MORE FUNCTIONALITY. "In 2012, a research program called the ENCODE project concluded that around three quarters of the noncoding DNA in the human genome did undergo transcription and that almost 50% of the genome was available to the proteins involved in genetic regulation such as transcription factors." https://lnkd.in/eZHPYqA View in LinkedIn

EXAPTATION EXAMPLES. "Hosts infected by viruses found new uses for the genetic material the agents of disease left behind; metabolic enzymes somehow came to refract light rays through the eye’s lens; mammals took advantage of the sutures between the skull bones to help their young pass through the birth canal; and, in the signature example, feathers appeared in fossils before the ancestors of modern birds took to the skies." https://lnkd.in/ehYPdVy View in LinkedIn

EXAPTATION "is a term used in evolutionary biology to describe a trait that has been co-opted for a use other than the one for which natural selection has built it." Darwin first conceived the idea. http://www.livescience.com/39688-exaptation.html View in LinkedIn

"ALU ELEMENTS are a common source of mutation in humans, but such mutations are often confined to non-coding regions where they have little discernible impact on the bearer." https://lnkd.in/ew-tScK View in LinkedIn

EXOGENOME. "Genes that encode products with exogenous targets, which comprise an organism's “exogenome,” typically exhibit high rates of evolution." https://lnkd.in/eNmH993 View in LinkedIn

RETROTRANSPOSONS. "Alu elements make up the largest family of human mobile elements, numbering 1.1 million copies and comprising 11% of the human genome. As a consequence of evolution and genetic drift, Alu elements of various sequence divergence exist throughout the human genome. Alu/Alu recombination has been shown to cause approximately 0.5% of new human genetic diseases and contribute to extensive genomic structural variation." https://lnkd.in/eiy_ZU9 View in LinkedIn