Only 8.2 Percent Of Our DNA Functional: Study


LONDON: Debunking earlier figures stating that 80 percent of our genome has some biochemical function, Oxford researchers now report that only 8.2 percent of our DNA is functional.

The rest of our genome is leftover evolutionary material, parts of the genome that have undergone losses or gains in the DNA code - often called "junk" DNA.

To reach their figure, the Oxford team identified how much of our genome has avoided accumulating changes over 100 million years of mammalian evolution - a clear indication that this DNA matters and it has some important function that needs to be retained.

"This is... a matter of different definitions of what is 'functional' DNA," says professor Chris Pointing of the MRC Functional Genomics Unit at Oxford University.

"We do not think our figure is actually too different from what you would get looking at ENCODE's bank of data using the same definition for functional DNA," he said.

In 2012, some scientists involved in the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project stated that 80 percent of our genome has some biochemical function.

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Source: IANS