Pseudogenes are not pseudo any more.

Yan-Zi Wen, Ling-Ling Zheng, Liang-Hu Qu, Francisco J Ayala, Zhao-Rong Lun

School of Life Sciences and Key Laboratory of Tropical Diseases and Control of the Ministry of Education, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.

RNA biology 2012 Jan

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Recent significant progress toward understanding the function of pseudogenes in protozoa (Trypanosoma brucei), metazoa (mouse) and plants, make it pertinent to provide a brief overview on what has been learned about this fascinating subject. We discuss the regulatory mechanisms of pseudogenes at the post-transcriptional level and advance new ideas toward understanding the evolution of these, sometimes called "garbage genes" or "junk DNA," seeking to stimulate the interest of scientists and additional research on the subject. We hope this point-of-view can be helpful to scientists working or seeking to work on these and related issues.