TNRTB Classic: Junk DNA and the Nucleoskeletal Hypothesis
A few days ago I wrote about the ENCODE project and the new recognition that, at minimum, 80 percent of the human genome consists of functional DNA elements. Despite some skeptics’ complaints that the media, creationists, and intelligent design adherents have misconstrued the ENCODE report, the project’s results stand. The human genome is not a vast wasteland of junk, but appears to be an elegantly designed system.
The ENCODE team approached the genome looking for functional elements that play a role in controlling gene expression. But DNA elements can be functional in other ways. For example, some researchers have suggested that the amount of DNA in the genome plays a role controlling the size of the nucleus; that is, DNA also plays a nucleoskeletal role.
To learn more about the nucleoskeletal hypothesis, click on the following links: