Reanimated ‘Junk’ DNA Is Found to Cause Disease

[n2doc]

By GINA KOLATA
Published: August 19, 2010

The human genome is riddled with dead genes, fossils of a sort, dating back hundreds of thousands of years — the genome’s equivalent of an attic full of broken and useless junk.

Some of those genes, surprised geneticists reported Thursday, can rise from the dead like zombies, waking up to cause one of the most common forms of muscular dystrophy. This is the first time, geneticists say, that they have seen a dead gene come back to life and cause a disease.

“If we were thinking of a collection of the genome’s greatest hits, this would go on the list,” said Dr. Francis Collins, a human geneticist and director of the National Institutes of Health.

The disease, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, known as FSHD, is one of the most common forms of muscular dystrophy. It was known to be inherited in a simple pattern. But before this paper, published online Thursday in Science by a group of researchers, its cause was poorly understood.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/science/20gene.html?src=me&ref=homepage

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I've always wondered about that junk DNA and whether or not it was

truly inactive.

[Warpy]

2. I see it as the final key to evolution

They've already determined that some DNA structures were originally RNA viruses. It also appears from experiments with creatures like fruit flies that genes are switched on and off by exposure to environmental stressors.

We're in the infancy of gene science. It's one of the most exciting areas of pure research right now.