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Junk DNA tells miceand snakeshow to grow a backbone | Science | AAAS

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Mutations in this mouse embryos noncoding DNA likely caused it to grow extra ribs.
R. Aires, et.al.DevelopmentalCell, 38, 2 (29 July 2016) Elsevier Inc.

Junk DNA tells miceand snakeshow to grow a backbone

By Diana Crow Aug. 1, 2016 , 11:45 AM
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Why does a snake have 25 or more rows of ribs, whereas a mouse has only 13? The answer,
according to a new study, may lie in junk DNA, large chunks of an animals genome that
were once thought to be useless. The ndings could help explain how dramatic changes in
body shape have occurred over evolutionary history.

Scientists began discovering junk DNA sequences in the 1960s. These stretches of the
genomealso known as noncoding DNAcontain the same genetic alphabet found in genes,
but they dont code for the proteins that make us who we are. As a result, many researchers
long believed this mysterious genetic material was simply DNA debris accumulated over the
course of evolution. But over the past couple decades, geneticists have discovered that this
socalledjunkisanythingbut. It has important functions, such as switching genes on and
o and setting the timing for changes in gene activity.

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Recently, scientists have even begun to suspect thatnoncodingDNAplaysanimportant

roleinevolution. Body shape is a case in point: Theres an immense amount of variation in
body length across vertebrates, but within species the number of ribs and so forth stays
almost exactly the same, says developmental biologist Valerie Wilson of the University of
Edinburgh. There must be some ways to alter the expression of those [genes] regulating
evolution to generate this massive amount of variation that we see across the vertebrates.
To explore this question further, researchers led by developmental biologist Moises Mallo of
the Gulbenkian Institute of Science in Oeiras, Portugal, turned to an unusual mouse. Most
mice have 13 pairs of ribs, but a few strains of mutant mice bred by Mallo and colleagues have
24 pairs. Their rib cages extend all the way along their backbone, down to the hind legs,
similar to those of snakes.

as this
5KSnakes,

1 Gaboon
such
74viper, have can have more than 100 pairs of ribs.

Stefan3345/Wikimedia Commons

The research team traced the extra ribs to a mutation deactivating a gene called GDF11,
which puts the brakes on another gene that helps stem cells retain their ability to morph into
many cell types. Without GDF11 to slow down that second geneOCT4the mice grew extra
vertebrae and ribs. But GDF11 seemed just ne in snakes. So what was regulating vertebrate
growth in snakes? The researchers decided to look at the DNA surrounding OCT4 to see
whether something else was going on.
The OCT4 gene itself is similar in snakes, mice, and humans, but the surrounding noncoding
DNAwhich also plays a role in slowing down OCT4looks dierent in snakes. To see
whether this junk DNA gives snakes a longerlasting growth spurt, Mallo and his colleagues
spliced noncoding snake DNA into normal mouse embryos near OCT4. The embryos grew

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large amounts of additional spinal cord, suggesting that thisjunkDNAdoesindeedplaya

roleinbodyshaperegulation, the team reports this month in DevelopmentalCell.
But the researchers will have to do more to denitively conrm their ndings, says
developmental biologist and snake specialist Michael Richardson of Leiden University in the
Netherlands, who was not involved in the study. Snakes would have to be genetically
engineered with noncoding DNA that switches o OCT4 early, as it does in most other
vertebrates. If this noncoding DNA is in fact the cause of snakes extralong midsections,
then snakes with that version governing OCT4 would be much shorter. Unfortunately,
genetically engineering snakes is almost impossible because theres no way to get access to
very early embryos. When the snake lays an egg, its already got a little head and about 26
vertebrate, so its already well on the way [to becoming a fully formed snake]. That way we
miss out on the early genes, Richardson explains.
Developmental biologists say OCT4 could be another example of evolutionusingnoncoding
DNAtochangeupanimalanatomy. We know that oftentimes its not the gene itself that
changedits the anking regions or the regulatory regions, Richardson says. What theyve
shown quite clearly here is that the OCT4 gene isnt dierent but the timing [of its
expression] is prolonged.
Snakes are an extreme variation. Almost all vertebrates have a head, a neck, a rib cage, and a
tail (or tail region), but the lengths of those sections vary wildly among dierent species. A
amingo has a very long neck, but snakes have a huge trunk. Its not only the tail thats
longer, Mallo explains. The ingredients are not changing. The amounts and the timing of
adding ingredients are.
Posted in: Biology, Plants&Animals
DOI: 10.1126/science.aag0714

DianaCrow
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Laurence A. Moran 2 months ago

No knowledgeable scientists ever said that all noncoding DNA was junk. Please stop
spreading this false information. Scientists have known about functions in noncoding DNA for
over half a century. They've known about regulatory sequences since the 1960s. The idea
that changes in regulatory sequences could change phenotypes has been known for almost
as long. Stephen Jay Gould wrote a book about it in 1977 ("Ontogeny and Phylogeny") where
he explained how small changes in regulation could aect evolution. Work on developmental
biology in the 1980s (mostly with Drosophila) proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Sean B.
Carroll explains it in "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" (2005).
This study shows that expression of OCT4 is controlled by regulatory sequences that don't
code for proteins (i.e. noncoding DNA). That's hardly news, is it?
SCIENCE is supposed to be one of the leading journals so how could an article like this get
published? It grossly distorts the important conclusions of the study and misrepresents the
modern state of knowledge of genes, genomes, and developmental biology.
5

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Chris Day 2 months ago

'Junk DNA' is not synonymous with non-coding DNA as implied in this article. This verges on
tabloid journalism.
4

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Jim Bowman 2 months ago

The assumption that because most DNA didn't code for protein it was junk and just left over
evolutionary garbage, was junk science. Good science tries to falsify it's own hypothesis, not
impose it on everything. Sadly now if you don't uncritically accept the current dogma and
sing in tune you are excluded.
2

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NoQuarter > Jim Bowman 2 months ago

Can you point to me where in the scientic literature, junk DNA proponents have
assumed that a sequence that doesn't code for a protein must be junk?
2

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Scott Page > Jim Bowman 2 months ago

It is ironic that you write this, since it is not true that what you wrote was the
assumption.

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ts 2 months ago

Are these "junk DNA" sequences the same thing in other species as "human accelerated
regions?" They seem to have similar functions, i.e. dening major anatomical dierences
between species.
1

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Alejandro Burga 2 months ago

" Mallo and his colleagues spliced noncoding snake DNA into normal mouse embryos near
OCT4. The embryos grew large amounts of additional spinal cord, suggesting that this junk
DNA does indeed play a role in body shape regulation, the team reports this month in
Developmental Cell"
I read the paper and the authors never performed that key experiment. Please x
1

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joseph2237 2 months ago

No such thing as junk DNA. DNA should be viewed as a historical record of pass generations.
The only question in my mind is just how far back can it go?

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Laurence A. Moran > joseph2237 2 months ago

The consensus view among knowledgeable scientists is that approximately 90% of

our gnome is junk. About 1.25% is coding and the rest is other functional sequences
(regulatory, centromeres, telomeres, origins of replication, SARs, etc.)
1

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linzel > Laurence A. Moran 2 months ago

Larry, even here you shouldn't waste your time trying to educate the trolls.

Reply Share
joseph2237 > Laurence A. Moran 2 months ago

And the Egyptians threw out the brain because they thought it was useless too.
Nature does not create junk. Lets face ,it how many generations can we go
back, mom and dad, seven, ten, thousand generations. You can't make your
own RNA to DNA, you can't make a human from four chemicals so until you
can don't try to bualo people you know know everything DNA.

Reply Share
Nick G > joseph2237 2 months ago

He isn't. But you're trying to pretend you know anything about it.

Reply Share
joseph2237 > Nick G 2 months ago

Your right one of us is pretending. The point of view of the writer and
you is a narrow one that E Hubble proved in 1925 that most of the stars
in the sky are actually galaxies and limiting our perspective isn't health
for researchers.

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Max DeVraie 2 months ago

That's what it is, an evolutionist: a mask perpetually changing its shape and form, always
looking to t, to adapt anything into something according to his ideas. Before, evolutionists
talked about junk DNA, as debris accumulated during "evolution". Now that we know that
evolutionists are wrong (not only in this, but in everything they believe), what do they do?
Well, they will always nd hypocrite ways to adapt, and to continue their attempts of the
impossible: their hypothesis that God does not exist and that everything is just a result of
random; obviously, they have never been able to do that, and never will, because they are
utterly wrong. Glory be given to Jehovah, God Almighty, the Creator of the Universe, the
visible and the invisible to our eyes, in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. Amen.

Reply Share
Nick Chevance > Max DeVraie 2 months ago

Thanks for the sermon, Reverend. But, can we get back to the science?
Larry Moran is correct. I'm not a biologist but I've read enough to know this isn't news.
Odd that Science has decided to publish this "Gosh, gee whiz" article about
something that seems to be common knowledge. And it's this type of article in a
publication like Science that will bring out the "Maxei"'s of the world who think we're
all heathens, our working hypothesis is there is no God, and other similar inanities.

Reply Share

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