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Originally Posted by baudrunner More "categories" were probably provided by the DNA's "Simpson's Desert Regions", which were once thought to have no useful function and were once commonly referred to as "junk DNA". This "junk DNA" represents about 98% of the entire DNA molecule. Researchers have now identified certain segments of these regions which facilitate the process in gene selection for protein synthesis and appear to provide some other useful functions after all, in contrast to the task of providing the actual gene template, which is the job of the allele, or genetically coded portion. |
I wonder how much of this "junk DNA" actually is critical for an organisms ability to rapidly evolve due to external pathogens. That is, imagine that parts of the DNA actually allow the organism to rapdily change its overvall phenotype to respond to environmental conditions.
Certainly not all of this junk DNA serves this role- but it would make sense that some of it would. Also, some of this junk DNA has inevitably been inserted by viruses who are vertically propagating- that is- propagating from parent to child through their own DNA, and flipping on when the appropriate external switch (normally a version of the virus itself) appears to turn it on.