“Junkomics is the study of artificially induced expression of junk DNA sequences,” making functional elements from junk DNA.
Paper link here.
We asked a simple question – Why did nature choose a particular region for making proteins ? Did she sample all possible combinations, chose some and rejected others. If she did not sample all possibilities, can we express naturally not-coding DNA into functional peptides and proteins. If yes, will all combinations work ? What will be the boundary condition of such an approach and what are the best case scenarios ?
To address these questions, we invented a technique to artificially convert non-coding sequences into functional genes. We call them eka genes (ekam – first, in sanskrit). Here is a link to the paper.
See also: Junk DNA strikes again.
He said it: Darwin’s junk DNA zealots “have forfeited any claim … to be speaking for science”