We really are mapping out life, I wonder where this will take us. It’s only a matter of time before we figure out enough about how we work. At that point, the sky is the limit as far as I can see.

Regulatory DNA, Levine explains, controls how and where a gene is expressed in a cell. Of the three types of regulatory DNA–enhancer, silencer, and insulator–”enhancers are king, activating gene expression in specific cell types for specific tissues,” he says. Scientists conservatively estimate that while the human genome has less than 30,000 genes, it may contain 100,000 enhancers at the minimum. So far, just 50 or so have been identified.

“It’s hard to come up with an accurate estimate because they’re so elusive,” Levine says. “You can take an unknown genome and find a protein-coding gene just by reading the code. You may not know a thing about the gene, but at least you can identify it. So far though, we haven’t found the code for regulatory DNA, if one even exists.”

via Science Matters @ Berkley