A recent paper out of the department of genetics at the University of Chicago presents statistical evidence that noncoding DNA is actually evolving. Using what they call a “shared rates test” to identify conserved non-coding elements (CNCs) that show significant variation in substitution rates across branches of a phylogenetic tree, they found that many regions in both animals and humans show speed-ups and slow-downs. At The Daily Transcript, Alex Palazzo breaks down the paper into bite-sized chunks.
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