"Junk" DNA: An Evolutionary Survival Tool

A new study by the Flanders Institute of Biotechnology, Leuven, Belgium, has

revealed that "junk" DNA is responsible for activating our genomic evolution. This
unknown side of DNA actually helps organisms adapt quickly to environmental
changes by tuning gene activity, which is an essential survival tool in our
evolution.

Junk DNA is called such because of its supposed lack of function. Certain portions
of the DNA sequence of a chromosome or genome have been thought to be
provisionally insignificant because their unidentified function. For years, scientists
have suspected that the majority of DNA outside of genes, or "non-coding DNA", is
ineffectual and just can not be removed from our genome.

Tandem repeats, which are short stretches of DNA that are repeated head-to-tail,
are a good example of what is commonly referred to as junk DNA. Marcelo Vinces,
the study's co-author said, "At first sight, it may seem unlikely that this stutter-DNA
has any biological function. On the other hand, it seems hard to believe that nature
would foster such a wasteful system."

The research team that conducted the study found that stretches of tandem
repeats influence the activity of adjacent genes. Gene activity is dictated by
nucleosomes, which are proteins around which DNA wraps and forms a packaging
structure. Tandem repeats are responsible for how tightly the local DNA wraps
around the nucleosomes. When DNA is copied, the number of repeats changes
frequently, which affects the local DNA packaging, and ultimately alters gene
activity. In an effort to mimic biological evolution, the team used yeast cells to
further test their theory. The results indicate that when a tandem repeat is close to
a specific gene, yeast mutants can be produced which have a hugely increased
activity of the gene. On the contrary, when the tandem repeat region was
removed, this fast evolution was not possible.

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