The popular media is reporting on a group of papers from the ENCODE project that was published in the past few days. The ENCODE project has been ongoing for a number of years and here is a 2004 paper that appeared in Science that laid out the initial project and goals: https://phenomorph.arc.nasa.gov/publications/ENCODE_project.pdf
One way to think about the ENCODE project is that it aims towards identifying the role of all of the elements of the human genome. One can think of these elements are being divided into two part: genes and non-genes -- the latter having been called "junk DNA" by researchers a decade or so ago because it was not clear what they did besides take up space. Well, ENCODE has determined that that junk DNA does much more than take up spaced and that parts of it are critical in the regulation of the activity of genes. A simple illustration of the relationship between the two is provided by the NY Times in the following figure: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/09/06/science/rethinking-junk-dna.html?ref=science There is a supporting article by Gina Kolata that summarizes the key points from the 30+ papers published in Nature, Science, and other journals. The following quote from the Kolata article provides some insight: |Human DNA is “a lot more active than we expected, and there are |a lot more things happening than we expected,” said Ewan Birney |of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory-European Bioinformatics |Institute, a lead researcher on the project. | |In one of the Nature papers, researchers link the gene switches to |a range of human diseases — multiple sclerosis, lupus, rheumatoid |arthritis, Crohn’s disease, celiac disease — and even to traits like |height. In large studies over the past decade, scientists found that |minor changes in human DNA sequences increase the risk that a |person will get those diseases. But those changes were in the junk, |now often referred to as the dark matter — they were not changes in |genes — and their significance was not clear. The new analysis reveals |that a great many of those changes alter gene switches and are highly |significant. | |“Most of the changes that affect disease don’t lie in the genes themselves; |they lie in the switches,” said Michael Snyder, a Stanford University |researcher for the project, called Encode, for Encyclopedia of DNA Elements. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/science/far-from-junk-dna-dark-matter-proves-crucial-to-health.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2_20120906&pagewanted=all For psychologists, I think that this makes discussions about genes and psychological processes far more complex as well as making the possibility of genetic interventions trickier: it is not only the genes that one has to consider but also which "switches" are relevant and how should they be set. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=20239 or send a blank email to leave-20239-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
