How JUNK DNA became respectable

Science Daily — Large swaths of garbled human DNA once dismissed as junk appear to contain some valuable sections, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of California-Santa Cruz. The scientists propose that this redeemed DNA plays a role in controlling when genes turn on and off.

Gill Bejerano, PhD, assistant professor of developmental biology and of computer science at Stanford, found more than 10,000 nearly identical genetic snippets dotting the human chromosomes. Many of those snippets were located in gene-free chromosomal expanses once described by geneticists as "gene deserts." These sections are, in fact, so clogged with useful DNA bits - including the ones Bejerano and his colleagues describe - that they've been renamed "regulatory jungles."

Story unTeller: Gill Bejerano, PhD, assistant professor, Stanford
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070423185538.htm
and
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070615091210.htm

Story Research: Junk DNA not so "junkie"