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Its been a few years since I left the genetics world behind, and I was just a sysadmin, but even then I'm pretty sure they had determined non coding regions to
by arca_vorago 9y ago
Its been a few years since I left the genetics world behind, and I was just a sysadmin, but even then I'm pretty sure they had determined non coding regions to play a vital role in protein formation/folding.
- subroutine 9y agoHow would non-coding DNA help with protein folding when translation happens outside the nucleus? It's possible that upstream UTRs impact RNA transcription rates, but I'd be surprised if UTRs mediate protein folding.
- arca_vorago 9y agoI wanted to say something about RNA so maybe your onto something, but alas, I may be simply wrong.
- Someone 9y agoNon-coding = "not translated into proteins", not "isn't used". Some non-coding DNA produces non-coding RNA, including transfer RNAs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-coding_RNA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-coding_RNA), which help in protein construction.
- subroutine 9y agoThis makes sense given we know that some nontranslated RNA has biological activity , like tRNA and rRNA. I was under the impression that "junk" DNA referred to DNA that was not transcribed.
- dekhn 9y agonearly all DNA is transcribed at some low rate (this has been experimentally determined) but it seems probable that most long stretches of non-coding DNA contain little to no functional elements and could be replaced or removed with no observable functional effect.