Specific DNA once dismissed as junk plays an important role in brain development and may be involved in several devastating neurological diseases, a new study has found.
The so-called junk DNA has largely been pushed aside and neglected in the wake of genomic gene discoveries, said researchers from the University of California, San Francisco.
The team studied molecules called long noncoding RNA (lncRNA, often pronounced as 'link' RNA), which are made from DNA templates in the same way as RNA from genes.
"The function of these mysterious RNA molecules in the brain is only beginning to be discovered," said Daniel Lim, the senior author of the study published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
Alexander Ramos, a student at UCSF and first author of the study, conducted extensive computational analysis to establish guilt by association, linking lncRNAs within cells to the activation of genes.
Ramos looked specifically at patterns associated with particular developmental pathways or with the progression of certain diseases.
He found an association between a set of 88 long noncoding RNAs and Huntington's disease, a deadly neurodegenerative disorder.
He also found weaker associations between specific groups of long noncoding RNAs and Alzheimer's disease, convulsive seizures, major depressive disorder and various cancers.
Ramos combined several advanced techniques for sequencing and analysing DNA and RNA to identify where certain chemical changes happen to the chromosomes, and to identify lncRNAs on specific cell types found within the central nervous system.
The research revealed roughly 2,000 such molecules that had not previously been described, out of about 9,000 thought to exist in mammals ranging from mice to humans.
In fact, the researchers generated far too much data to explore on their own so they have created a website through which their data can be used by others who want to study the role of lncRNAs in development and disease.
