The Bladderwort Test

Given the new stem cell announcement yesterday we do have a way to resolve this issue.Clone a chimp that has had its genome stripped of, let's say, half the identified junk DNA and see what kind of "thing" develops.Better yet we could do this with a human genome. A republican one would help keep the horror to a minimum since it could be argued that republicans show no signs of being sentient beings.Mengele would be so proud of me. Edited by AZPaul3, : cuz

Mus musculus zombisus (frankenmouse)But seriously, excising 0.1% is not much of a test when the present view is that more than half the genome is non-coding.And a serious question: How do geneticists determine between coding and non-coding areas of the genome? Base pair repeats for 1000s of pairs? What else?

I let the humor get the better of me. That was not a serious suggestion.

Your are quite correct.I keep forgetting that you do not have to look at the gene itself through mixing it in a bunch of chemicals to see what falls out the bottom anymore. These things are transcripted in data files in raw ATCG format. Computer programs then are used to search the files for specific sequences (known sequences from other genomes) or using AIs to identify likely novel sequences.It gets quite complex. Gene finding StrategiesAnd then this popped up:

quote:

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Even the concept of a 'gene' is under revision. Genes have long been regarded as discrete entities located linearly along chromosomes, but recent investigations have demonstrated extensive transcriptional overlap between different genes. Specifically, genomic regions from otherwise distinct and apparently well characterized protein-coding loci (which may be very far apart in linear genomic space) often appear to combine to produce transcripts with the potential for encoding novel protein species.

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sourceNow even a gene may not be just its own gene but part of several different genes using this specific sequence.Cool.Edited by AZPaul3, : cuz

Yes. You're missing the possibility that Taq may have momentarilly slipped a cog and relayed a picture to us that was not same one in his mind.