Genomes: not just genes

What's in a genome?

The human genome includes all of the genes that code for proteins, together with the control sequences for each gene, and the DNA that occurs between and within genes. The human genome is estimated to be 3,200,000,000 base pairs long.

We actually have two copies of our genome - one from our mother and one from our father - so we manage to pack a lot of DNA into our cells.

Quite simply, we don't know what some our genome does. The bits of DNA we don't understand have often been called 'junk DNA'. However, the more we learn about what's in the 'junk', the more it seems better to call it 'noncoding' DNA' instead.