How much of the human genome, our genetic blueprint, actually makes us who we are? New work by an evolutionary biologist at the University of Houston suggests that only up to 25% of the human genome is functional. The other 75% are so-called “junk DNA” – useless sequences that don’t play a role in the important chemical reactions inside us.
This conclusion goes sharply against the estimate of 80% functionality proposed by the ENCODE project, an international public research consortium that has led the way in human genome exploration.Dan Graur, professor of biology and biochemistry, calculated that about 10 to 15 percent of the genome is actually functional, with the upper limit of 25 percent.
His reasoning stems from looking at how mutations affect a population’s DNA. Graur’s mathematical model allowed him to calculate the “mutational load” – the total genetic load of a population that results from the accumulation of bad or deleterious mutations. At some point the load can become too much and the population would go extinct.
Graur’s work related how reproductive success, the ability of a species to replenish itself, was decreased by the deleterious mutations. Over time, humans would have to reproduce at…
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