杏吧原创

The biggest comparison to date of the mouse and human genomes has found that
the species share 4 per cent of what is traditionally dubbed 鈥渏unk DNA鈥�,
suggesting it has some function. Nearly 97 per cent of the human genome is
classed as junk, but Andrew Feinberg of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,
Maryland, and his colleagues compared a million genetic letters on chromosome
11, and found some matches (Genome Research, vol 10, p 1697). 鈥淚f you
really want to understand anything other than the genes鈥�the only way is
to do comparative sequencing,鈥� says Feinberg. He says the shared bits of junk
DNA are close to genes, and so probably play a role in gene regulation.