Junk paradigm?

Bits of Mystery DNA, Far From ‘Junk,’ Play Crucial Role. (See also here). This is very shocking news for the modern paradigm. It should be I suppose. The modern oversimplified paradigm is based on gene-protein-function relationship – everything else is not very important. To knock-out a gene or to inhibit enzyme – the only important issue. Too simple to be understood by investors, patients and journalists out there. Clever people said that it is not, let’s say, correct. But the paradigm is still in arsenal of Big Pharma. And here we have another shot:

For decades, scientists thought that most of our genetic code was essentially useless — basically filler between our genes. Only a tiny fraction — the part that has genes in it — really mattered, according to this thinking.

So the most amazing thing that we found was that we can ascribe some kind of biochemical activity to 80 percent of the genome. And this really kind of debunks the idea that there's a lot of junk DNA or really if there is any DNA that we would really call junk," NHGRI's Feingold said.

What has been called junk DNA is actually teeming with an intricate web of molecular switches that play crucial roles in regulating genes. The ENCODE project scientists found at least 4 million of these regulatory regions so far.

These switches rev genes up. Calm them down. They orchestrate how the whole complex system works. Scientists have already started to figure out which switches control which genes. And that's uncovered even more surprises. Genes can get instructions from up to dozens of switches. And some of the switches are nowhere near the genes they control.

"Most of the human genome is out there mainly to control the genes," said John Stamatoyannopoulis, a geneticist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, who also participated in the project.

The findings help explain why so many studies have found genetic mutations that appear to be associated with diseases in places where no genes reside. It turns out, these areas contain the molecular switches that, when damaged, are behind the diseases.

"The whole way that we look at the genetic basis of disease is going to change. And it's going to change from this model from trying to look at particular this gene or that gene etc to trying to look at genes operating as a system or a network," Stamatoyannopoulis said.

Do you know what? Scientists cannot take control over individual genes, how in the world they will be planning to get riddle of genes systems and genes networks???  Well, just wish them a success J