Introns -- nonsense DNA -- may be more important to evolution of genomes than thought Date: December 14, 2009 Source: Indiana University Summary: The sequences of nonsense DNA that interrupt genes ...

Biologists still do not understand the function of introns and why they are present in such large numbers in most eukaryotes, the higher organisms, including humans.

Introns are important because they allow for alternative splicing, which in turn allows one gene to code for multiple transcripts and therefore serve multiple complex cellular functions. Introns can ...

The interrupted non-coding regions in pre-mRNAs, termed “introns,” are excised by “splicing” to generate mature coding mRNAs that are translated into proteins. As human pre-mRNA introns ...

The investigators found, however, that there were a lot of phase 1 introns that were more than 50,000 nucleotides in length in one group of genes. These genes are involved in the transmission of nerve ...

Scientists have discovered that some tiny segments of RNA thought to be junk instead have a functional role in suppressing production of certain messenger RNAs and appear to help cells respond to ...

July 1, 2005 July 1, 2005 (Vol. 25, No. 13) TargeTron Site-Specific Gene Knockout Systems ...

Researchers have long puzzled over why many eukaryotic protein-coding genes are interspersed with segments of noncoding DNA that have no obvious biological function. These so-called introns are ...

Scot A. Kelchner, Group II Introns as Phylogenetic Tools: Structure, Function, and Evolutionary Constraints, American Journal of Botany, Vol. 89, No. 10 (Oct., 2002 ...

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that introns, or junk DNA to some, associated with RNA are an important molecular guide to making nerve-cell ...