Biochemistry Questions Biochemistry Questions / Discuss the significance of the ENCODE project and its contribution to our understanding of the human genome. How did it challenge previous assumptions?

The Encyclopaedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project aimed to identify functional elements within the human genome. This included chromatin accessibility, histone modification, non-protein coding transcripts, amongst other elements. This research project identified approximately 80% of the human genome having biological function, a large increase on what was previously thought. This led to disagreement in the scientific community, due to it having a different definition of a ‘functional element’, as well as these elements having different levels of activity. The results from ENCODE are now widely accepted.