Shyness tied to junk DNA

[Celebration]

http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/107/108443.htm

June 9, 2005 -- The difference between a social butterfly and an introverted recluse may be in the genes. But it may be the genes that scientists least suspect.

Researchers say the findings indicate that social behavior, such as shyness and boldness, may be shaped by seemingly unimportant DNA often referred to as "junk" genes.

The study, published in this week's issue of Science, is the first to show a link between junk genes, otherwise known as microsatellite DNA, and social behavior in different species.

"The variability in the microsatellite could account for some of the diversity in human social personality traits," says researcher Elizabeth Hammock, of Emory University, in a news release. "For example, it may help explain why some people are naturally gregarious while others are shy."

[Boomer]

1. Typical scientific arrogance

>> behavior, such as shyness and boldness, may be shaped by seemingly unimportant DNA <<

If these segments of DNA shape behavior, then obviously they're not "junk", rather they're DNA the scientists haven't figured out yet.

[Celebration]

2. junk dna

This monkey is smart enough to retrieve his junk DNA from the trash heap!!

http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s133634.htm

Only about 3% of the DNA actually codes for amino acids, which in turn make proteins, and eventually, little babies. The remaining 97% of the DNA is, according to conventional wisdom, not gems, but junk.

The molecular biologists call this junk DNA, introns. Introns are like enormous commercial breaks or advertisements that interrupt the real program - except in the DNA, they take up 97% of the broadcast time. Introns are so important, that Richard Roberts and Phillip Sharp, who did much of the early work on introns back in 1977, won a Nobel Prize for their work in 1993. But even today, we still don't know what introns are really for.

Simon Shepherd, who lectures in cryptography and computer security at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom, took an approach, that was based on his line of work. He looked on the junk DNA, as just another secret code to be broken. He analysed it, and he now reckons that one probable function of introns, is that they are some sort of error correction code - to fix up the occasional mistakes that happen as the DNA replicates itself. But even if he's right, introns could have lots of other uses.

The next big breakthrough came from a really unusual collaboration between medical doctors, physicists and linguists. They found even more evidence that there was a sort-of language buried in the introns.