The concept of junk DNA - the notion that some portion of the genomes of every organism is non-functional - has been around for over 60 years. And yet, many people, including some biologists, don't seem to understand it. In this video, I review the history of the concept, including framing junk DNA in an ecological and population genetic lens, demonstrating that it's virtually guaranteed to exist. We also take a deep dive into the infamous ENCODE controversy, discussing notions of biological function, and the many methodological, statistical, and conceptual errors of the consortium.
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#junkdna #evolution #education
Links to @CreationMyths ongoing feud with the Discovery Institute over junk DNA:
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References and further reading:
Graur, D., Zheng, Y., Price, N., Azevedo, R. B., Zufall, R. A., & Elhaik, E. (2013). On the immortality of television sets: “function” in the human genome according to the evolution-free gospel of ENCODE. Genome biology and evolution, 5(3), 578-590. ([ Ссылка ])
Palazzo, A. F., & Gregory, T. R. (2014). The case for junk DNA. PLoS genetics, 10(5), e1004351. ([ Ссылка ])
Doolittle, W. F. (2013). Is junk DNA bunk? A critique of ENCODE. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(14), 5294-5300. ([ Ссылка ])
Kellis, M., Wold, B., Snyder, M. P., Bernstein, B. E., Kundaje, A., Marinov, G. K., ... & Hardison, R. C. (2014). Defining functional DNA elements in the human genome. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(17), 6131-6138. ([ Ссылка ])
Lynch, M., & Marinov, G. K. (2015). The bioenergetic costs of a gene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(51), 15690-15695. ([ Ссылка ])
Lynch, M., & Conery, J. S. (2003). The origins of genome complexity. science, 302(5649), 1401-1404. ([ Ссылка ])
Ohno, S (1972). So much "junk" DNA in our genome. Brookhaven Symposia in Biology. 23: 366–70.
Moran, L. A. (2023). What's in Your Genome?: 90% of Your Genome Is Junk. University of Toronto Press.
