>A question I've never seen addressed: is one justification for junk DNA to create space for beneficial mutations? Yes, gene/genome duplications can help creat

>A question I've never seen addressed: is one justification for junk DNA to create space for beneficial mutations? Yes, gene/genome duplications can help create raw material for adaptation, or be adaptive by their own right. >That's not a risk with non-coding (or irrelevantly-coding) DNA It's not risk free. It's just less risky. There are all sorts of elements within the "intergenic" region of genomes which can impact fitness. Duplications in these regions can change the "dosage" of genes or the availability of DNA to be transcribed. Duplicating these regions is mostly dependent on how tolerate the species is of dosage changes. Humans for example are very intolerant, while plants are very tolerant. Also, please stop using "junk DNA". It is outdated term ;).