The human genome is way too complicated for me

What has become of that simple 21,000-gene genome of ours? Today even the definition of gene is no longer clear. What biotypes belong to lncRNAs and what’s the job of unitary pseudogenes? For geneticists dog-paddling in complex diseases another surprise came last year with the announcement that roughly 80% of the genome has some sort of function. Confused? Grab this issue of Genome Research and read the review by Mudge and colleagues, who discuss many examples of the transcriptional complexity within the human genome. Continue reading