Scientists Find New Type of Gene in Junk DNA
Wed Jun 2, 2004 02:04 PM ET
By Patricia Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - Junk DNA may not be so useless after all.

Scientists coined the term to describe the genetic wasteland within the human genome, or book of life, which consists of long uncharted stretches of DNA for which there is no known function.

But researchers from Harvard Medical School in the United States said on Wednesday that within junk DNA in the yeast genome they have discovered a new class of gene.

Unlike other genes, the new one does not produce a protein or enzyme to carry out its function. But when it is turned on, it regulates a neighboring gene.

"This doesn't explain all junk DNA. It gives a potential use for some junk DNA," Professor Fred Winston, who headed the research team, said in an interview.

"I cannot think of another regulatory gene such as this one," he added.