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Letter: A theory on why we might have junk DNA

Published 4 February 2026

From Nathaniel Hellerstein, San Francisco, California, US

I speculate that part of the reason for junk DNA is to make it difficult for viruses to manipulate our genomes. A side effect of this is that it will be difficult for us to manipulate our genomes (10 January, p 12).

Issue no. 3581 published 7 February 2026

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