Alu sequences and junk DNA

[Aleksandar Milosavljevic]

I would like to argue in support of sequencing complete genomes,
including the "junk". Without the 1000 or so Alu sequences available
in Genbank we [1] could not have discovered that Alu sequences are pseudogenes
retroposed from a small set of retropositionally active Alu source genes.

-Aleksandar Milosavljevic

[1] Jurka, J. and Milosavljevic, A.,
Reconstruction and Analysis of Human Alu Genes,
J Mol Evol (1991) 32:105-121