Isochores: Three-Dimensional Information Layer in DNA Challenges Junk DNA Paradigm |Biomedgrid

Over the past forty years, many different types of DNA structures in the genome of living organisms have been classified as “junk DNA”, i.e., non-functional genetic units that are thought to be traces of a long and protracted evolution. Gradually, however, it is becoming apparent that these genetic regions perform important functions (pseudogenes, introns, etc.). A similar case that recently has become known are DNA sequences with a frequently repeating structural known as the isochores. The finding that isochores are genetic elements that store the information for the correct spatial arrangement of DNA in the cell nucleus challenges the evolutionary junk DNA paradigm.