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Big reveals for genome of tiny animal

Tunicates’ scrambled gene order suggests arrangement may not matter for vertebrate body plan and hints at origins of mysterious bits of DNA

By Tina Hesman Saey

- More than 2 years ago

As any devotee of Antiques Roadshow can tell you, just because something has been saved doesn’t mean it’s valuable.

UNSTRUCTURED The study of tunicates, the second most abundant type of zooplankton in the oceans, is helping to reveal where mysterious chunks of DNA called introns come from.