The Genome and Art: Finding Potential in Unlikely Places

As the Human Genome Project nears completion, we can anticipate having a map of the complete sequence of nucleotides in human DNA--without knowing many of their functions. It will be a little like having a list of every telephone number in the country, with only a vague idea of where they connect. The public's attention has generally been directed toward research into the protein-coding portions of the genome in hopes that, among other goals, this knowledge might be used in medical diagnoses and treatments. Accordingly, genomics is rapidly developing into a commercial enterprise. Much of our genetic code, however, consists of seemingly valueless sections referred to as "junk," such as Alu sequences and repetitive phrases, which do not participate in the production of proteins .¹

Junk sequences often consist of the same one or two letters repeated many times and tend to be easily distinguished from other genetic material. What could be the purpose of the great number of redundant elements interlaced within the otherwise information-rich framework of DNA?

In a 1994 New York Times article, Natalie Angier restated some geneticists' speculations that junk DNA sequences might act as gene enhancers, fine-tuning gene activities or acting as buffers against change and the impact of viruses. Angier recounted the history of scientists' beliefs about this boringly repetitive yet mysterious genetic substance as follows:

Dr. Roy J. Britten of the California Institute of Technology, who first described junk DNA 26 years ago, said that some of the most familiar junk in primate DNA has all the signposts of [a] molecular raison d'être. These . . . Alu sequences, are short, repetitive strings of about 280 DNA bases apiece, which are scattered widely throughout the chromosomes of all primates, including humans. . . . Dr. Britten proposes however, that whatever their origin, the Alu sequences have since been drafted into duty by the primate host, perhaps to serve as subtle modulators of the genes they are near. . . . Dr. Ben F. Koop . . . and Dr. Leroy Hood . . . compared those coding parts of the sequence that actually dictate the construction of the receptor, as well as the parts that lay in between . . . the so-called introns that are normally edited out during the multi-step process of generating a protein. . . . "When we find this sort of conservation, we have to think that even introns are involved in chromosome structure or organization, or some regulatory function. . . ." [These] areas could be the caches of mutability and evolutionary change, a safe testing ground where new genetic ideas may arise without deactivating existing genes. . . . "I'm of the school of thought that junk DNA is absolutely necessary in evolution and recombination," said Dr. J. Craig Venter .²

Angier's account of junk DNA provides a good example of how scientific hypotheses evolve. This little-understood genetic material is now posited as having value as a reservoir of flexible potential for future evolution. It appears that the coding, information-bearing portions of the genome that are already locked into specific functions lack that flexibility. Since Angier's article appeared, scientists have given increased attention to the non-coding portions, and as a result, all of us might discover more about properties and mechanisms involving the potential for new evolutionary functions. Even as a "space filler," non-coding DNA has value, since it punctuates the positions of functional DNA, marking intervals. For example, introns, or interruptions, subdivide genes, making it possible to specify different gene products .³ When we shift attention from protein-coding DNA to the spaces in between, we are likely to open up unexplored areas.

These observations have some resonance with traditional figure-ground relationships, as well as with repetitive, background elements in many early two-dimensional or bas-relief artworks. We could view these elements as comparable to the "in-between" spaces in DNA. The unidentified faces of onlookers or crowds portrayed within Renaissance paintings may once have conveyed information about individuals alive at that time, but now they...