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"Junk" = "archived library"?
My suspicion is that much of the non-coding “junk” part of various genomes are simply coding regions that have been “switched off”, and may, in reaction to future environmental or genetic events, become switched on again. Rather than “junk”, this DNA may actually be “archived library” data. Andolfatto’s research, which appears to imply that some mechanism is at work to keep junk DNA intact and unchanged, supports this hypothesis.
There’s much interesting speculation as to how such switching might take place, from such subject idea spaces as Punctuation Equilibrium Evolution to those who suspect that viruses may play a role in incorporating individual genomes into a larger information system, an idea embraced by many who subscribe to Gaia theory.
Of one thing I’m confident: the coming decades of genetic research are going to continue to be intensely interesting.
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