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On Estimating Functional Gene Number in Eukaryotes

Nature New Biology volume 242, pages 52–54 (1973)Cite this article

Abstract

MANY recent studies have been concerned with the construction of biological model systems to describe adequately regulation of gene action during development of eukaryotes1–5. The number of genes in mammals and Drosophila has been suggested to be 1 to 2 orders of magnitude less than the amount of available DNA per haploid genome could provide2–7. Although Drosophila and mammalian nuclei contain enough unique DNA to specify for respectively 105 and 106 genes of 1,000 nucleotide pairs8,9, it has been argued that a much lower estimate of functional gene number is more reasonable2–7. Conversely, these conclusions indicate that more than 90% of the eukaryotic genome may be composed of nonfunctional or noninformational “junk” DNA. Here we demonstrate these estimations have not been fundamentally proven; rather they are based on simplifying assumptions of questionable validity, in some cases contradictory to experimental data.

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Author notes

  1. S. J. O'BRIEN

    Present address: Viral Biology Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, 20014

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gerontology Research Center, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore City Hospitals, Baltimore, Maryland, 21224

    S. J. O'BRIEN

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  1. S. J. O'BRIEN
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O'BRIEN, S. On Estimating Functional Gene Number in Eukaryotes. Nature New Biology 242, 52–54 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio242052a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio242052a0

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