Nature 447, 799-816 - Identification and analysis of functional elements in 1% of the human genome by the ENCODE pilot project.
Here are some of their highlights in their own words: - The human genome is pervasively transcribed, such that the majority of its bases are associated with at least one primary transcript and many transcripts link distal regions to established protein-coding loci. - Many novel non-protein-coding transcripts have been identified, with many of these overlapping protein-coding loci and others located in regions of the genome previously thought to be transcriptionally silent. - A total of 5% of the bases in the genome can be confidently identified as being under evolutionary constraint in mammals; for approximately 60% of these constrained bases, there is evidence of function on the basis of the results of the experimental assays performed to date. - Surprisingly, many functional elements are seemingly unconstrained across mammalian evolution. This suggests the possibility of a large pool of neutral elements that are biochemically active but provide no specific benefit to the organism. This pool may serve as a 'warehouse' for natural selection, potentially acting as the source of lineage-specific elements and functionally conserved but non-orthologous elements between species. So, there is no junk DNA, there is no silent DNA, 40% of what's being evolutionarily constrained has no known function, some of what appeared to have a known function is apparently free to change across all known mammal genomes. That's 4 of the 11 highlights. -- rec -- On 6/15/07, Carl Tollander <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I may have mentioned this morning that this is probably important: > http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/node/13465/print > > Carl ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
