Hey, "These Sequences May Not Be Junk, After All"! Nature and Heredity Report Function for Non-Coding DNA

The latest issues of the journals Nature and Heredity contain multiple articles reporting function for non-coding DNA. The themes are consistent: types of DNA once thought to be junk now turn out to have function.

A "News & Views" piece in Nature, "Coding in non-coding RNAs," states: "The discovery of peptides encoded by what were thought to be non-coding -- or 'junk' -- regions of precursors to microRNA sequences reveals a new layer of gene regulation. These sequences may not be junk, after...