by Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
September 05, 2012
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UW genome scientist Dr. John A. Stamatoyannopolous led several major Project ENCODE related studies. |
The ENCODE project has looked deeper into "junk DNA" than ever before. And junk it is not: According to more than 30 research papers published today (Sept. 5) in a number of journals including Science and Nature, at least 80 percent of the genome is biologically active, with much non-protein-coding DNA regulating nearby genes in a complex dance of influence. [Mysteries of Human Evolution]
The findings reveal that the genetic basis of many diseases may not be in protein-coding genes at all, but in their regulatory neighbors. For example, genetic variants related to metabolic diseases pop up in genetic regions that activated only in liver cells. Likewise, regions activated in immune cells hold variants that have been associated with autoimmune disorders such as lupus.
"These breakthrough studies provide the first extensive maps of the DNA switches that control human genes," study researcher John Stamatoyannopoulos, associate professor of genome sciences and medicine at the University of Washington, said in a statement. "This information is vital to understanding how the body makes different kinds of cells, and how normal gene circuitry gets rewired in disease. We are now able to read the living human genome at an unprecedented level of detail, and to begin to make sense of the complex instruction set that ultimately influences a wide range of human biology."
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