Researchers at the University of Warwick have found another round of “conserved” non coding sequences, this time in the four plant species: the papaya, poplar, Arabidopsis and grape. And if the these similar DNA sequences are found in such disparate species, then the sequences must have been present in a very distant, and much simpler, common ancestor. The problem these CNS’s are apparently rather clever. Not only do they appear to be regulating gene expression by influencing transcription factor binding, but they many of the genes regulated by these sequences are themselves transcription factors. As one researcherexplains: Read more