Epigenetics Key to Human Evolution

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Mattick says the genetic programming of complex organisms has been largely misunderstood for the past 50 years because of the assumption that proteins transact most genetic information. He says that even after more than half a billion years of evolutionary divergence, most genes are still recognisably common to all animal species. All animals share a basic complement of about 20,000 protein-coding genes. In humans, protein-coding genes account for only 1.2 per cent of genomic DNA.

“It is now clear that the majority of the mammalian genome is transcribed into non-protein coding RNA, and that there are tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of long and short RNAs in mammals that show specific expression patterns and sub-cellular locations,”? says Mattick. “Our studies indicate that these RNAs form a massive, hidden network of regulation that regulates epigenetic processes, and directs the precise patterns of gene expression during growth and development.”?

http://www.lifescientist.com.au/article ... evolution/