"Junk DNA" and the Molecular Basis of Cell Identity

An interesting research article was published in Nature this week [Wang, K. C., Y. W. Yang, et al. (2011). "A long noncoding RNA maintains active chromatin to coordinate homeotic gene expression." Nature].

In the study, a fascinating new regulatory role is identified for long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs). Once thought to be "junk," or functionless vestiges of once-protein-coding-genes which have, through the course of evolutionary history, mutated to a state of non-functionality, the r...