Sciscoop spotted a Scientific American article on so-called junk DNA that implies is has a much more complicated (and interesting) role than just separating useful genes.
The previously prevailing view, that proteins are in control, succumbs to a problem of "combinatorial complexity" - the more proteins involved, the proportion of the system devoted to regulation increases, and there's an intrinsic "complexity limit." The rise of multicellular organisms evidenced in the "Cambrian explosion" suggests a transition to a new control structure that could transcend previous limits - and this direct role for regulatory RNA could be the explanation.SciScoop || Genes != Proteins Posted by bill at September 21, 2004 05:10 PM