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ANOTHER FRACTION. "Besides protein-coding sequences (including associated untranslated regions), which make up 1.5%–2.5% of the human genome, data from ENCODE suggest that conserved long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are generated from about 9,000 loci that add up to less than an additional 0.4%." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

THE KNOWN FUNCTIONAL PORTION. "The idea that 9% of the human genome shows signs of functionality is actually consistent with the results of ENCODE and other large-scale genome analyses." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

SMALL FRACTION CONSERVED. "Several analyses of sequence conservation between humans and other mammals have found that about 5% of the genome is conserved. It is possible that an additional 4% of the human genome is under lineage-specific selection pressure; however, this estimate appears to be somewhat questionable." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

FRESH GENES. "Flowers are all about sex, that's for sure." https://lnkd.in/e-2Hbnt View in LinkedIn

MOST PSEUDOGENES "are simply evolving without selective constraints on their sequences and likely have no function" (that is yet known!). http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

SONG OF DARWIN. "The more I study nature, the more I become impressed […] that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations [acquired through natural selection] transcend in an incomparable degree [those] which the most fertile imagination of the most imaginative man could suggest with unlimited time at his disposal." https://lnkd.in/eykUy37 View in LinkedIn

EXAPTATION. "Some pseudogenes have been co-opted for organism-level function." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE for the next two weekends deals with the stunning emergence of flowering plants (angiosperms) on this planet. This event changed terrestrial biodiversity forever. This group is dominant, richly diverse, and very successful. Flowers, it turns out, are all about sexual recombination of genes. The genetic basis of this sudden event appears related to gene duplication. Rethink these remarkable creatures. View in LinkedIn

PSEUDOGENES. "The human genome is also home to a large number of pseudogenes. Estimates of the total number range from 12,600 to 19,700." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

THE ROOT OF THE CASE FOR JUNK DNA. "There are unambiguous examples of nonprotein-coding sequences of various types having been co-opted for organism-level functions in gene regulation, chromosome structure, and other roles, but at present evidence from the published literature suggests that these represent a small minority of the human genome." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn