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"BACTERIOPHAGES – or phages for short – are viruses that attack bacteria but not humans. They have only one objective: their reproduction. Phages are so poorly equipped, however, that they can’t do this on their own. Without the help of their victims, they aren’t much more than a dead piece of protein with a touch of genetic material. But if the phages do hit a suitable bacterium, they multiply in a chillingly efficient cycle." https://lnkd.in/eZQvpdQ View in LinkedIn

ENCODE definition of functional proteins includes those that are "biochemically functional" even if it had no impact on phenotype. This definition has been challenged by others. https://lnkd.in/eJne7Xw View in LinkedIn

STORM IN A TEACUP. The apparent flip-flop over functional DNA appears lodged in definitional disagreements. "How could the meaning of one word—function—be so divisive?" https://lnkd.in/eqwEMmU View in LinkedIn

80% FUNCTIONAL? "These data enabled us to assign biochemical functions for 80% of the genome, in particular outside of the well-studied protein-coding regions.” As a very small fraction of the genome (~1%) encodes for protein sequences, a question in science has been, what does the other 99% do? ENCODE data demonstrated that much of this DNA participates in biochemistry in some way." https://lnkd.in/e-NRQHx View in LinkedIn

DRIVING EVOLUTION. "Transposons are also the raw material of evolution. When these mobile elements move around in eggs and sperm, they can increase genetic diversity....transposons have contributed to human success by speeding our unusually rapid evolution, especially evolution of our big brains." https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/08/05/how-much-of-human-dna-is-doing-something/ View in LinkedIn

DECODING JUNK DNA. "In a paper published in Nature in 2012, ENCODE researchers concluded that 80% of the human genome is functional. Ever since, commentators have argued over what large swaths of non-coding DNA might be doing. Super-enhancers, which can occupy tens of kilobases, suggest a use for at least some of this DNA. In fact, published ENCODE work foreshadowed the super-enhancer discovery." https://lnkd.in/ezRUFD5 View in LinkedIn

FAST BREEDING. "We do delete them, but they replicate so fast that we can’t keep up. Transposons, however, are not essential for a successful life. A little weed called the humped bladderwort. Only 2.5 percent of its genome is transposons, compared to 50 percent transposons in Homo sap." https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/08/05/how-much-of-human-dna-is-doing-something/ View in LinkedIn

MOLECULAR PARASITES. "But most of the 90 percent consists of DNA sequences called transposons. Occupying fully half the human genome, transposons are stretches of DNA that can hop around in host DNA. They are somewhat related to viruses, and Sean Eddy...calls them “molecular parasites.” https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/08/05/how-much-of-human-dna-is-doing-something/ View in LinkedIn

RESIDUAL DNA. "So what’s the other 90 percent of the human genome up to? It has been called junk, and although scientists don’t much like that term, junk is what a lot of it appears to be. Some of that DNA, for instance, is leftover fragments of dead viruses that invaded our ancestors’ genomes aeons ago." https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/08/05/how-much-of-human-dna-is-doing-something/ View in LinkedIn

NEUTRAL DNA. "The rest of the genome, Birney said in 2012, is not–as some would have it — just biological “noise.” He prefers to call that DNA “biologically neutral,” meaning “that there are totally reproducible, cell-type-specific biochemical events that natural selection does not care about." https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/08/05/how-much-of-human-dna-is-doing-something/ View in LinkedIn