Outreach in Biotechnology

DNA sequences that are present in a genome in many copies, but that do not code for proteins and are not conserved during selective pressure (i.e. they are unlikely to have important biological functions). A substantial proportion of all eukaryotic genomes is composed of this class of DNA. Many types of noncoding DNA sequences, however, are not "junk" and can act, for example, as transcriptional and translational regulators.