I am a postgraduate student investigating the possible functions of
highly repetitive and especially middle repetitive DNA. I am persuaded
by the observation that many familieis of middle repetitive DNA are
interspersed with protein coding genes and transcribed. This may
indicate that they have a regulatory function in gene expression. Can anybody
help me with references? These sequences have evolved too slowly -
at about 0.2% per million years - to be junk. Jeffreys estimated
in the 1982 book Genome Evolution, that if middle repetitive DNA
were junk, it would have evolved at 2% per year.
thanks for any help you can give.
tabitha hofland
tabitha at vms.huji.ac.il
