Function and Evolution of Repeated DNA Sequences

The genome of a living being is composed of DNA sequences with diverse origins. Beyond single-copy genes, whose product has a biological function that can be inferred by experimentation, certain DNA sequences, present in a large number of copies, escape the most refined approaches aimed at elucidating their precise role.

The existence of what 20th century geneticists had already perceived (and wrongly described as "junk DNA"!) was confirmed by the sequencing of the first complex genomes, in...