CONTENTS

SR# TOPIC PAGE #

1) JUNK DNA 1
2) SIGNIFICANCE OF JUNK DNA 1
3) TURNING ON GENES 1
4) mRNA AND INTRONS 2
5) NONCODING RNA 3
6) LEFTOVERS 3
1)JUNK DNA:
In genetics, the term junk DNA refers to regions of DNA that are noncoding.DNA contains
instructions (coding) that are used to create proteins in the cell. However, the amount of DNA
contained inside each cell is vast and not all of the genetic sequences present within a DNA
molecule actually code for a protein. The proportion of coding versus noncoding DNA varies
significantly between species. In the human genome for example, almost all (98%) of the DNA is
noncoding, while in bacteria, only 2% of the genetic material does not code for anything.

2)SIGNIFICANCE OF JUNK DNA:

“Junk DNA not so junky”
Most of the time when people talk about “junk DNA” they mean DNA that doesn’t have a function.
In other words, it’s DNA that does not have a specific purpose.
It turns out we were too quick to call this DNA junk. We have discovered a lot of functions for
DNA we didn’t know about before. In fact, it seems most “junk DNA” does have a purpose.
We know now that a lot of “junk DNA” is around to tell our bodies when, where and how much
to turn on a gene. New research tells us that most of the rest of the junk probably does unknown
but important things too.
When we talk about DNA we usually focus on genes. This is because genes are the part of DNA
that carries the information to make proteins. Proteins are the chemical machines that do
everything in your body from making the pigment in your skin, to causing your heart muscles to
contract.
The interesting thing is not that much of your DNA actually carries the specific information for
proteins. In other words, not a lot of your DNA is taken up with genes, or 'coding regions.' When
the human genome was sequenced in 2001 scientists found that only about 3% of human DNA
was genes and the rest was noncoding DNA.
This might make more sense if you think of your DNA like a cookbook with all the recipes you
will ever eat. The genes are like the ingredients you need to make a recipe.
But most of the cookbook isn’t the list of ingredients; it’s the instructions of what to do with them.
What temperature to use, when to add certain ingredients, and so on. This is the information found
in all of that junk DNA.
Even though we were wrong about most DNA being junk, there probably is some DNA you don’t
need. We know that some DNA can be deleted in mice without causing any apparent damage, and
we think that might also be the case in humans. And there’s probably still some DNA that does
stuff we don’t understand yet.

3)Turning on genes:
Each and every cell in your body has all the DNA instructions needed to make you. But not every
cell in your body does the same thing. Your muscle cells don’t do the same thing as your skin cells
even though they have the same DNA.
What your cells have to do is only read the instructions relevant to that kind of cell. Muscle cells
only look at the “muscle cell” part of DNA and ignore the rest. This way you don’t end up with a
muscle cell that has hairs growing from it.
If we think about our cookbook, on any given day you only want to cook a few certain recipes. So
that day you only look at the pages with those recipes. The recipes are like the genes a particular
kind of cell needs.
DNA is a code written in 4 chemical letters: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine
(T). The order of these letters tells a cell what amino acids to put together and in what order. Those
amino acids are what make a protein.
But genes, and the proteins they make, are just the ingredients in our recipes. The instructions for
when, where, and how much of those ingredients to use are mostly outside of our genes.
A lot of regulation of genes happens in front of coding regions. These parts of the DNA are called
promoters.
Promoters carry a lot of information that tells the cells when, where and how much of the protein
to make. But that’s not the only part of DNA that controls making proteins.
here are also other regions of DNA that also contribute to when and where a protein is made. These
regions don’t always have to be right in front of the gene which sometimes makes figuring out
what piece of DNA regulates a coding region difficult.
To make things more complicated there is another molecule in the mix besides DNA and proteins.
RNA is needed too.

4) mRNA and Introns:

One of the things RNA does is copy the code from DNA and then act as a go-between between
DNA and the machines (ribosomes) that put the amino acids together. This kind of RNA is called
messenger RNA or mRNA. We’ll talk about other kinds of RNA in a little bit.
Going back to our cookbook example, if DNA is the cookbook then mRNA is a copy of a recipe.
This way you don’t need to drag the whole cookbook around with you while you’re cooking.
What’s weird is that when DNA from a gene gets made into mRNA, not all of that mRNA gets
used to make proteins. These pieces of DNA, that interrupt coding regions, are called introns.
Introns are cut, or ‘spliced,’ out of the mRNA before it gets translated into a protein. In other
words, they aren’t used to make the final protein product.
At first introns might look like junk, but lots of them aren’t. Some introns make their own small
proteins. Others control how much of the protein gets made. And some are important in making
different proteins from the same gene (alternative splicing). As you can see below, a cell just cuts
out the introns in different places:
5)NONCODING RNA:
RNA is a pretty amazing molecule. Not only can it carry the information from DNA but it can also
act a little like a protein.
Even though RNA is a helix (but a single helix not a double like DNA), it can fold into other
structures. These structures can do work in the cell like a protein. There are quite a few things
RNA can do besides carrying DNA’s message.
Different kinds of RNA are important in making proteins. The ribosomes, that put together amino
acids to make proteins, are made up of a combination of RNA (called rRNA) and proteins. And
the molecules that bring the amino acids to the ribosomes, called tRNA, are made of RNA as well.
Some smaller RNAs can match up with parts of mRNAs and cause that mRNA to be cut up before
it ever gets to the ribosome. This means that even though an mRNA is made, it doesn’t always
mean that protein is made. These RNAs can fine-tune the amount of protein made by changing the
amount of mRNA that gets to ribosomes.
There are lots of other RNA molecules, of all different sizes, that are encoded in what used to be
known as “junk DNA.” And most of these appear to regulate the coding regions of DNA in lots of
different ways.
That takes care of what most of the 80% of our DNA is doing. What about the other 20%? Turns
out that a lot of this DNA is probably the leftovers of old genes and viruses. But even some of this
DNA might be useful.

6)LEFTOVERS:
Some “junk DNA” could be left over from our evolutionary past. It used to do something but that
job was taken over by some other piece of DNA, or we don’t need that job anymore.
Viruses also leave behind DNA. Many times viruses will insert their DNA into our DNA to make
our cells do all the work for them. When the virus leaves the cell they often leave behind pieces of
their DNA.
Sometimes this left over virus DNA has a whole gene on it and that gene gets used in our bodies.
But a lot of times the virus leaves behind just a part of a gene or a gene that doesn’t work. This
DNA doesn’t do anything but still gets copied for the next generation.
Some of these old genes and virus scraps might not be doing anything now but could be useful in
the future. Changing these old pieces of DNA is one way to make new genes!
There might be some true junk DNA in our genome. But we don’t know what pieces of DNA have
functions we are just waiting to discover.
What we do know is that what we thought was junk DNA just a few years ago turns out to be
useful. It ensures that mRNA and proteins are made only in the right cells at the right time in just
the right amounts. So it might be that in a few more years there will be even less mysterious “junk”
in our genomes.