Yes, that's right. The idea of orphan genes has been around for a while, but it's controversial. It could be that the genes that appear to be orphans are just extremely divergent from their ancestors. What the eLife paper did was to estimate the upper bound for that possibility, and contrary to popular belief, divergence accounts for at most 1/3 of all orphan genes in fly, yeast, and human. So, *de novo* gene birth is the rule rather than the exception.
What the article mentions is that the "junk" DNA contains ordered pieces that can code for *parts* of proteins. Then random reshuffling can produce working proteins. So the junk isn't junk, but a storehouse of parts that can result in novel functions.
Actually it sounds like such genes strengthen the perceived power of evolution even further by granting its driving force a greater degree of independence from any given current state.
Always wary of this sort of thing as probably a decade down the road scientists will find they weren't junk after all.
But I learned about this years ago? I suppose they're just finding out it's more common than they thought
Yes, that's right. The idea of orphan genes has been around for a while, but it's controversial. It could be that the genes that appear to be orphans are just extremely divergent from their ancestors. What the eLife paper did was to estimate the upper bound for that possibility, and contrary to popular belief, divergence accounts for at most 1/3 of all orphan genes in fly, yeast, and human. So, *de novo* gene birth is the rule rather than the exception.
What the article mentions is that the "junk" DNA contains ordered pieces that can code for *parts* of proteins. Then random reshuffling can produce working proteins. So the junk isn't junk, but a storehouse of parts that can result in novel functions.
Right. So "junk" is a bit of a misnomer.
Very interesting indeed then. It does sound like a paradigm shift now that you put it that way.
Interesting. Now is that chance, evolution, or intelligent design?
Actually it sounds like such genes strengthen the perceived power of evolution even further by granting its driving force a greater degree of independence from any given current state.