Evolution Research - General Evolution News

University of Iowa scientists have made a discovery that broadens understanding of a rapidly developing area of biology known as functional genomics and sheds more light on the mysterious, so-called 'junk DNA' that makes up the majority of the human genome.

The team, led by Beverly Davidson (homepage), Ph.D., a Roy J. Carver Biomedical Research Chair in Internal Medicine and UI professor of internal medicine, physiology and biophysics, and neurology, have discovered a new mechanism for the expression of microRNAs - short segments of RNA that do not give rise to a protein, but do play a role in regulating protein production. In their study, Davidson and colleagues not only discovered that microRNAs could be expressed in a different way than previously known, they also found that some of the junk DNA is not junk at all, but instead consists of sequences that can generate microRNAs.

Davidson and her colleagues, including Glen Borchert, a graduate student in her lab, investigated how a set of microRNAs in the human genome is turned on, or expressed. In contrast to original assertions, they discovered that the molecular machinery used to express these microRNAs is different than that used to express RNA that encodes proteins. Expression of the microRNAs required an enzyme called RNA Polymerase III (Pol III) rather than the RNA Polymerase II (Pol II), which mediates expression of RNA that encode proteins. The study is published in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology Advance Online Publication on November 12.

Continued at "Scientists Explore Function of 'Junk DNA'"
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Based on "RNA polymerase III transcribes human microRNAs" (Abstract - Advance Publication url; 'final' url will be here)

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