(photo: Robert Hammersmith)

Princeton researchers who have been studying the genome of a pond organism have found that perplexing “junk DNA” may not be so junky after all.

In probing the genetics of the pond organism Oxytricha, shown here in the process of reproducing, they have discovered that DNA sequences from regions of what had been viewed as the “dispensable genome” are actually performing functions that are central for the organism.

To read more about this and other recent research from Princeton, visit www.princeton.edu/main/news/science/.