为垃圾DNA正名
概述：记得听一位生物化学教授说过，人体是一架最精密的机器，任何当代的高科技都望尘莫及。那么掌握生命奥秘的DNA当然更是其中代表了，垃圾DNA其实不垃圾，只是我们对它缺乏了解罢了。
Hints:
Nature
Human Genome Project
p.s. 第一段话的开始和结束声音比较轻，童鞋们注意调整音量哦~
主持：haifaforever
校对：早安Miki
翻译&注释：haifaforever
答疑：tvxqshell
口语点评：Redrum2407
口语节目地址：
http://t1.g.hjfile.cn/listen/201301/201301260904099818601.mp3An international team of scientists has published the most detailed analysis to date of the human genome. Writing in the journal Nature, they say they found that 80% of the genetic blueprint, previously dismissed as junk DNA, has a specific biological function. They've also discovered 4 million DNA switches, which control genes. The researchers hope the findings will lead to a deeper understanding of numerous diseases.
That was a headline on September 5th, the end of the concept of junk DNA. Actually, geneticists had long abandoned the idea that our genomes are riven with old rubbish. But what was once called junk was largely still unexplored. The story of this landmark project, published as dozens of coordinated studies - not just at Nature where I work, but in other leading journals too - began back in 2001 with the most surprising finding of the Human Genome Project.
"One of the major surprises that came out of the Human Genome Project was that there were so few genes and those protein-coding genes occupy so little of the genome, just over 1%. So what is the rest of the territory, the 99% of the genome? What does it do if it doesn't make protein? And I think much of the last ten years has been all about trying to work out what are the different ways that the genome expresses itself when it doesn't make protein directly."一个由国际科学家组成的团队今天发布了关于人类基因组最为详细的分析。在基因蓝图上有80%的基因以前被鄙为垃圾DNA，而在这篇发表在《自然》期刊的文章中，他们称已发现这些基因其实都是有着特定的生物学功用的。他们还发现了四百万个DNA开关，能控制基因。研究者们希望这些发现能进一步引导人们对诸多疾病有更深的了解。
那是9月5日的一则头条消息，宣告垃圾DNA这一概念的终结。其实，我们的基因组被一大堆垃圾弄得支离破碎这个想法，遗传学家们是早已摒弃了。但这些一度被称为垃圾的东西到底是什么，很大程度上还有待探索。关于这个里程碑式的项目的故事是以几十项相互协作的研究的形式公布的，不仅发表在我所工作的《自然》杂志上，也出现在其他前沿期刊上。这个项目开始于2001年，伴随着人类基因组计划最为惊人的发现而来。
“人类基因组计划产生了几项令人惊讶的主要发现，其中之一就是基因的数量极少，而蛋白质编码基因在基因组中所占比例又是那么少，只有1%。那么在这个基因王国中，基因组的其他99%又是什么呢？如果说它不负责构建蛋白质，那它是做什么用的呢？我想过去十年中，人们把大部分时间都花在试图寻找基因组除了直接构建蛋白质以外，还用了什么不同的方式来为自己传递信息。”
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