What and What?? Let's talk about Genetic Dark Matter instead

Ann Parker here, settling into Saturday as Staci McLaughlin moves into Thursday. According to the old nursery rhyme, "Saturday's child works hard for a living." Well, that's the truth. But I love my work, much of which encompasses science writing. So, I'm going "off topic" today. (If you want sex and violence, or sex OR violence, check out posts by LadyKillers Rita, Staci, Camille, and Priscilla.) Rather, like Mary Anna, I'm striking out on something different...

Instead, I'd like to draw your attention to the very recent announcement in the New York Times of the discovery of "genetic dark matter."

You see, for decades, scientists have been working on unravelling the genetic code. They mapped the human genome, sequenced it, and deciphered bits and pieces. The strange thing was, so much of the genome seemed to be useless, or as it was often called, "junk." There seemed to be no purpose to the chaotic DNA bits filling up the (sometimes) vast spaces between the actual genes.

Well, what they've discovered now (you probably saw this coming), is that the "junk" isn't junk at all, but are really really important. The DNA bits are actually little gene "switches" that (to quote the NYT) "turn out to play critical roles in controlling how cells, organs and other tissues behave." These switches, once considered as being little more than filler, may be key to development of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, depression, and more.

Just like in a mystery, the truth about this so-called junk was hiding in plain sight, just waiting for someone to grasp its significance in the overall plot and scheme of things.

I urge you to read the NYT article... it's well written and the concepts of the research are easy to grasp.

So, just as Mary Anna started the week celebrating the development of Curiosity on Mars, I shall raise my morning cup of joe to the discoveries of the ENCODE project, which involved 440 scientists from 22 laboratories from around the world.

Life... It's a mystery, and it's amazing.

 

Comments

[Mary Anna Evans]

Am I a bad influence or what? :D I'm sure it's written in my DNA.

[Priscilla]

We should know by now that nothing in an organism is "junk". Love this! Thanks, Ann!

[Ann]

Hey Mary Anna! Thanks for the inspiration. Now, the debate is bound to intensify: How much is nature and how much is nurture?
We live in interesting times!

[Ann]

Hi Priscilla!
Absolutely! It's just a matter of digging a little deeper, yes? :-)

[Staci]

I found this article so fascinating -- what a breakthrough! I can't wait to see what they find out after they've studied the switches even more.

[Susan Shea]

And didn't they announce that there are well more than 20,000 of these little switches? Whatever the quantity, clearly they're vital and yet another piece of evidence that the human body (or any other living thing's body) is a mind-boggling machine of beauty and function.

[Michael A. Black]

Interesting comparison to a mystery story, Ann. Sort of like life imitating art to the Nth degree.

[Ann]

Hi Staci!
Glad you checked out the article... and I agree: Where the research goes from here should be very interesting.

[Ann]

Hi Susan!
Yep yep, the article says the human genome has *at least* 4 million gene switches...The mind boggles!

[Ann]

Hi Michael!
Ah, you caught my reference to mystery novels. ;-) Had to tie it in somehow!