ENCODE Project

ENCODE project is the acronym of ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements.

This was a major Bio-technology Project after Human Genome Project. Countries co-operated include US, UK, Spain, Singapore and Japan. Research Results of ENCODE projects were published in 2012. The highlights of the findings were as follows.

ENCODE project – Normal Gene and Regulatory Gene

1. As a deviation from Human Genome Project, the ENCODE project explains that there is no concept called Junk DNA; but Genome consists only normal Genes and Regulatory genes.
2. Normal Genes form only 2% of Genome, while the Regulatory Genes are the main part of the rest 98%.( Scattered in the rest 98%)
3. DNA part which has active role of function can be around 80%. ( Normal + Regulatory).
4. Regulatory Genes may be Promoter or Enhancer.
5. Disease causing variety of DNA may not be in Normal DNA, but can be in Regulatory Genes (76% chance).
6. More than one regulator gene may be associated with a single gene.