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The One Thousand Genes You Could Live Without
sciencehabit writes Today researchers unveiled the largest ever set of full genomes from a single population: Iceland. The massive project, carried out by a private company in the country, deCODE genetics, has yielded new disease risk genes, insights into human evolution, and a list of more than 1000 genes that people can apparently live without. The project also serves as a model for other countries' efforts to sequence their people's DNA for research on personalized medical care, says study leader Kári Stefánsson, deCODE's CEO. For example, the United States is planning to sequence the genomes of 1 million Americans over the next few years and use the data to devise individualized treatments.
RTFA... they found people with double deletions.
Presumably you can live without them because there are people who live without them and are fine for it.
Most of the junk DNA is still... junk. Basically it's:
1) 60% of the DNA is _definitely_ junk, as they consist of known repeated elements (LINEs, SINEs and others) and defunct genes. This is not an 'absence of evidence', we know exactly how this DNA has happened.
2) Around 10% of DNA is structural. While this is technically not 'junk', this DNA does not encode anything useful.
3) Around 5% are coding sections and regulatory elements.
4) Another 5% of DNA appear to be stable under mutation pressure. So it might have some function.
4) And finally we have around 20% of DNA whose purpose is not known, but we know that random mutations in it do not visibly affect the phenotype.