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Perspective

Is junk DNA bunk? A critique of ENCODE

W. Ford Doolittle
  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 4R2

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PNAS April 2, 2013 110 (14) 5294-5300; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221376110
W. Ford Doolittle
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 4R2
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  • For correspondence: ford@dal.ca
  1. Edited by Michael B. Eisen, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and accepted by the Editorial Board February 4, 2013 (received for review December 11, 2012)

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Abstract

Do data from the Encyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project render the notion of junk DNA obsolete? Here, I review older arguments for junk grounded in the C-value paradox and propose a thought experiment to challenge ENCODE’s ontology. Specifically, what would we expect for the number of functional elements (as ENCODE defines them) in genomes much larger than our own genome? If the number were to stay more or less constant, it would seem sensible to consider the rest of the DNA of larger genomes to be junk or, at least, assign it a different sort of role (structural rather than informational). If, however, the number of functional elements were to rise significantly with C-value then, (i) organisms with genomes larger than our genome are more complex phenotypically than we are, (ii) ENCODE’s definition of functional element identifies many sites that would not be considered functional or phenotype-determining by standard uses in biology, or (iii) the same phenotypic functions are often determined in a more diffuse fashion in larger-genomed organisms. Good cases can be made for propositions ii and iii. A larger theoretical framework, embracing informational and structural roles for DNA, neutral as well as adaptive causes of complexity, and selection as a multilevel phenomenon, is needed.

  • evolution
  • human genome

Footnotes

  • ↵1E-mail: ford{at}dal.ca.
  • Author contributions: W.F.D. wrote the paper.

  • The author declares no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. M.B.E. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.

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Is junk DNA bunk?
W. Ford Doolittle
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Apr 2013, 110 (14) 5294-5300; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1221376110

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Is junk DNA bunk?
W. Ford Doolittle
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Apr 2013, 110 (14) 5294-5300; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1221376110
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    • Perennial Problem of C-Value
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