Researchers from Biomedical Sciences Research Center “Alexander Fleming” (BSRC Flemming) in Greece and Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, have identified 155 genes in our genome that emerged from small, non-coding sections of DNA. Many appear to play a critical role in our biology, revealing how completely novel genes can rapidly evolve to become essential.
New genes typically arise through well known mechanisms like duplication events, where our genetic machinery accidentally produces copies of pre-existing genes that can end up suiting new functions over time.
But the 155 microgenes pinpointed in this study seem to have appeared from scratch, in stretches of DNA that didn’t previously contain the instructions that our bodies use to build molecules.
Since the proteins these new genes are thought to encode would be incredibly tiny, these DNA sequences are hard to find and difficult to study, and therefore are often overlooked in research.
Some of the new ‘microgenes’ identified in this new study can be tracked all the way back to the earliest days of mammals, while others are more recent additions. Two of the genes identified by the study seem to have emerged since the human-chimpanzee split, the researchers found.
