Until now, little is known about the vast majority of our genome, which is the so-called non-coding DNA that previous experts have deemed as "junk." However, a team of researchers from the University of Manchester has recently discovered that they also hold answers to questions about early human development.
How Some Conditions Happen
In a report by Phys.org, the team's research helps shed some light on the non-coding DNA of our system, which makes up 98% of our entire genome and sits between our genes.
This vast area has been historically dismissed as junk as experts found out that only 30,000 or so of our genes hold the essential codes that create every protein in our body and practically tells how we should look.
Nevertheless, this turned out to be only 2% of our entire genome.
In the past, experts were not entirely sure how the vast majority of our genome works or whether they had contributed to how we turn out--not until today when the team of researchers published their paper in the journal Nature Communications.
According to the team, their paper could help scientists and experts in the medical field explain to parents how some babies are born with certain conditions, such as holes in the heart.
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The Answer Non-Coding DNA Holds
The team discovered that the non-coding DNA actually holds the secret to controlling how each of the genes is turned on and off in the right order, explaining how our genome can create each tissue in our body.
However, experts used to have little to no idea how this happens during early human development.
Babies that were born with problems with their heart, kidneys, limbs, and brain but didn't have any obvious issues in one of their genes would have to undergo a whole-genome reading through a process called Next Generation Sequencing (NGS).
But finding one problem could be extremely tough.
The team then adapted the same NGS technology and homed in on the functional non-coding genome and discovered it to be around 3% of the total, so by narrowing down the most critical areas, doctors may be able to make better diagnoses.
"What was striking was not just how particular sets of critical genes were turned on at the right time in the right place but how critical it was for the wrong genes to be shut off," Professor Neil Hanley said, a doctor at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and leader of the project.
Helping the Future
To double-check their findings, the team used a developing zebrafish as well as laboratory stem cells to show how the critical non-coding human DNA segments could appropriately light up green fluorescent protein.
"Fingers crossed this new atlas on the deepest secrets of our genome will help scientists and doctors pinpoint previously unsolved genetic changes, helping to explain to patients and parents where things might have gone wrong," Hanley said. "In time, we hope it will begin the process for working out how we might be able to avoid this happening in the future."
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Written by: Nhx Tingson
