Human Genome More Like a Functional Network

bshell writes "An article in science blog says we may have to rethink how genes work. So called "junk DNA" actually appears to be functional. What's more it works in a mysterious way involving multiple overlaps that seems to be connected in some sort of network." From the article: "The ENCODE consortium's major findings include the discovery that the majority of DNA in the human genome is transcribed into functional molecules, called RNA, and that these transcripts extensively overlap one another. This broad pattern of transcription challenges the long-standing view that the human genome consists of a relatively small set of discrete genes, along with a vast amount of so-called junk DNA that is not biologically active. The new data indicates the genome contains very little unused sequences and, in fact, is a complex, interwoven network. In this network, genes are just one of many types of DNA sequences that have a functional impact. "Our perspective of transcription and genes may have to evolve," the researchers state in their Nature paper, noting the network model of the genome "poses some interesting mechanistic questions" that have yet to be answered."

Comments

FractoGene first dispelled the "junk-algorithm"

[Founder of PostGenet]

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/11/2 2/1347202&mode=thread&tid=134

Armchair pondering

[PMBjornerud]

Note that I write without any real knowledge of the biology behind genes.

However, I could imagine that it could be beneficial for network effects to keep track of any dependencies for the different modules in an evolutionary algoriths. For example, let's make a wild guess that blond hair, blue eyes and pale skin also have some common "junk" elements. Since they are all related to the concept of "not much sunlight", it would be very useful to have some form of abstraction mechanic in the genes that could link them together.

Maybe it could be a way for nature to make groupings or "templates" of related attributes. Different environments may require different attributes, but for all environments there are some groups of attributes that are more efficient.

If genes have a mechanism to group related attributes, it would make it slightly faster to switch between such "templates". This could in turn cause a slighty higher chance to inherit a group of features that together has provided an advantage in the past, instead of just inheriting a random mix of the parents.

So maybe a way to keep track of previous successful combinations? Even if the "active" genes are highly successful in the current environment, a species might come in a situation where it would be beneficial to rapidly evolve to fit an environment their ancestors lived in.