Can't resist one more post to point out to all of these fine folks just how much you attempt to mislead this board. You said:
I suspect that they are using the term 'non-coding' in the sense of something that disrupts (and perhaps stops) the code as opposed to something that is not involved in coding at all. So it is something of a misnomer. In order to disrupt the code it has to be involved with the coding process, in fact in a very real sense it has to 'code' it's information into the process in order to create that disruption.
First of all, words mean things, especially in science. When a group of PhD's says "non-coding", they mean "non-coding". If they meant it in a way that was atypical (as you are attempting to do here to cover your but_), they would certainly make that clear. But, in fact, as I have alreayd pointed out, the SNP's they refer to are in the Introns, i.e. non-coding, i.e. "junk" DNA, which, oddly enough, is why they refer to it as non-coding.
Now back to the original thread, which you'll recall was YOUR challenge to Johnny to produce even ONE reference suggesting a role for non-coding DNA in disease susceptability. All you had to do was a simple Wikipedia check to get the answer:
Noncoding DNA
In genetics, non-coding DNA describes DNA which does not contain instructions for making proteins (or other cell products such as noncoding RNAs). In eukaryotes, a large percentage of many organisms' total genome sizes is comprised of noncoding DNA (a puzzle known as the "C-value enigma"). Some noncoding DNA is involved in regulating the activity of coding regions. However, much of this DNA has no known function and is sometimes referred to as "junk DNA".
Recent evidence suggests that "junk DNA" may in fact be employed by proteins created from coding DNA. An experiment concerning the relationship between introns and coded proteins provided evidence for a theory that "junk DNA" is just as important as coding DNA. This experiment consisted of damaging a portion of noncoding DNA in a plant which resulted in a significant change in the leaf structure because structural proteins depended on information contained in introns. Some non-coding DNA can be a non phenotypical RNA virus historical relic.
Later Lightweight,
W2P
