Google announced AlphaGenome Atlas, a system designed to predict the consequences of every possible single-base variant in the human genome. The tool aims to identify the functions of non-coding DNA, which comprises the vast majority of the genome and controls protein-coding activity.
The announcement came on Tuesday. The human genome contains approximately 3 billion bases, and AlphaGenome software analyzes the potential impact of changing each of those bases to one of the other three DNA bases. This results in a total of 9 billion bases being processed.
AlphaGenome is specifically designed to identify potential functions within non-coding DNA. While less than 3 percent of the human genome encodes proteins, the remaining non-coding portion includes essential elements like centromeres (which ensure even chromosome division) and protective caps on chromosome ends. It also contains regulatory DNA that controls gene activity, and sequences that affect DNA packaging within cells. Identifying the functional portions of this non-coding DNA is the primary goal, and Google intends for the analysis to be consolidated into a single software package. The utility of AlphaGenome beyond its training data will only become clear with widespread use by biologists.
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