Anyone who reads this blog but not Sandwalk (if any) should go right now and see Larry’s posts on junk DNA. Although I do not care so much for the term “junk DNA” because often it is employed ambiguously, Larry is careful to define it explicitly as sequences for which the evidence indicates nonfunction. The posts on the distinct components of the genome that are considered junk under this definition are:
Junk in your genome: pseudogenes
Junk in your genome: protein-encoding genes
A collection of related posts is compiled under Theme: genomes and junk DNA.
Enjoy!