Journal
CELL
Volume 183, Issue 5, Pages 1151-1161Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.09.047
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Funding
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Intramural Research Program of the NIH (National Library of Medicine)
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Transcriptome studies reveal pervasive transcription of complex genomes, such as those of mammals. Despite popular arguments for functionality of most, if not all, of these transcripts, genome-wide analysis of selective constraints indicates that most of the produced RNA are junk. However, junk is not garbage. On the contrary, junk transcripts provide the raw material for the evolution of diverse long non-coding (lnc) RNAs by non-adaptive mechanisms, such as constructive neutral evolution. The generation of many novel functional entities, such as lncRNAs, that fuels organismal complexity does not seem to be driven by strong positive selection. Rather, the weak selection regime that dominates the evolution of most multicellular eukaryotes provides ample material for functional innovation with relatively little adaptation involved.
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