'Junk' DNA inherited from our ancient ancestors may rewire our brains - Daily Mail

However, recently experts have proposed that this 'junk' information may in fact play an active and beneficial role in our bodies. .

Their findings showed that transposons are not active across the whole fly brain, but instead operate in certain areas only, forming distinct patterns of expression.

Moreover, these patterns appeared to be linked to genes located near transposons — suggesting that this 'junk' DNA may in fact play a beneficial role in our bodies. .

To investigate further, molecular biologist Christoph Treiber and colleagues used software tools they developed to explore how transposons are expressed.

This suggests that transposons may be used to alter neural function — and act on genes that have roles in such brain activities as the formation of memories and the sleep-wake cycle.

'Also, our preliminary analyses show that transposons might play a similar role in our brain,' said Dr Treiber.

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