It’s called the book of life but mice, and perhaps humans, can still thrive even when chapters are missing, scientists said Wednesday. The mouse genome, or genetic blueprint, was published nearly two years ago. Mice and men share 99 percent of their genes, including so-called junk DNA which has no known function. Intrigued to find out what junk DNA does, scientists in the United States removed swathes of junk DNA sequences from mice. To their amazement it made no difference in the rodents. The finding may have profound implications for researchers investigating the cause of illnesses because sequences of junk DNA that were deleted are shared by humans. Being able to discard areas of genome means scientists searching for the causes of illnesses and cures may now have fewer pages of the book of life to search.
