'Junk' DNA gives birth to new genes, which pop into existence from nowhere

[natasa778]

A Surprise Source of Life's Code

... The mystery of where these orphan genes came from has puzzled scientists for decades. But in the past few years, a once-heretical explanation has quickly gained momentum — that many of these orphans arose out of so-called junk DNA, or non-coding DNA, the mysterious stretches of DNA between genes. “Genetic function somehow springs into existence,” said David Begun, a biologist at the University of California, Davis.

This metamorphosis was once considered to be impossible, but a growing number of examples in organisms ranging from yeast and flies to mice and humans has convinced most of the field that these de novo genes exist. Some scientists say they may even be common. Just last month, research presented at the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution in Vienna identified 600 potentially new human genes. “The existence of de novo genes was supposed to be a rare thing,” said Mar Albà, an evolutionary biologist at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute in Barcelona, who presented the research. “But people have started seeing it more and more.”

Researchers are beginning to understand that de novo genes seem to make up a significant part of the genome ...

 

[alex3619]

The theory behind this is decades old. Evidence in support of it is fairly new. One of the early explanations for why we have so much "junk" DNA is that its part of the material needed for faster, better evolution. However its also fair to say that as we learn more and more of the genome, less and less of it is "junk". Much was simply stuff we did not understand back then.

I would not take this as proven yet, but definitely interesting.

PS The thing about these stretches of DNA is they are often genes from other species, including viruses, as well as duplicated genetic mistakes. So they largely could code for various molecules, and only need a few genetic tweaks to become functional. However since they were "offline" so to speak, they could mutate without killing their carriers. If the mutation was lethal and they came online, that person would likely die long before birth.