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Fig. 1 | BMC Biology

Fig. 1

From: On causal roles and selected effects: our genome is mostly junk

Fig. 1

Traits attributable to DNA. We include all effects of DNA that are detectable at some level other than that of the DNA itself (its sequence and amount): that is, all expressions in biochemical, physiological or behavioral phenotype and all measures of activity employed by ENCODE. Some will have a beneficial effect on organismal fitness in that their elimination would have a detrimental effect on survival and reproduction vis-à-vis the wild type, under environmental conditions encountered by the organism. Some will not. Of the former, only selected effect functions (adaptations) were positively selected in the past for their current contribution(s) to fitness, and are now presumably under purifying selection to maintain them. The products of CNE and exaptations are similarly presumed to be under purifying selection but the former were acquired without positive selection as in Fig. 2, while the latter may be the result of positive selection for some organismal function other than their current one, or at some level other than organismal (as in the rare TEs coopted into gene regulation), or result from genetic drift

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