Zakia Bayguzhina
The Number RM in DNA. Non-coding DNA
The need for further study of this molecule would help to find a clue to the development of cancer. These and many other considerations led to the fact that scientists around the world decided to read human DNA: which nucleotides and in what sequence are located in the molecule, as well as the possible information embedded in them.
Therefore, it was too early to stop.
In 1990, it was officially announced the launch of a program to study the nucleotide sequence of all human DNA. The Human Genome has become an international research project in which many countries have participated.
Already in 2003, this work came to an end, but it was completed in 2022.
So, the difficult task was solved. But after reading the entire sequence of nucleotides, it did not bring clarity.
The Human Genome Project has shown that DNA contains about 3 billion 100 million pairs of nucleotides.
And among such a huge number, only 1-2% are nucleotides encoding proteins. But the main part is occupied by non-coding DNA.
There was hope, that after learning the sequences of nucleotides, all the questions would be resolved by themselves, and we would be able to find effective ways to treat genetic diseases, maybe even understand the origin of life.
There was disappointment, having spent so much effort, we found out that there are about 2% of genes, and most of the DNA is non-coding.
Some suggest calling this part of the DNA non-functional, but nature is arranged in such a way that there is nothing superfluous, non-functional in it. What doesn't work disappears, because nature simply gets rid of the unnecessary. This did not happen with the non-coding part of the DNA.
Maybe non-coding DNA has another function?
Let's try to figure it out.
So, non-coding DNA is the part of DNA that does not encode protein sequences.
It is known that non-coding DNA includes such sequences of nucleotides as telomeres – these are the end sections of linear chromosomes, promoters from which RNA synthesis begins, as well as functionally significant sequences of nucleotides and so on.
But there are areas that, it would seem, do not have biological functions. For example, repeating sequences that were built into DNA, viral elements, and others.
