In a study last year, scientists identified where these “non-canonical” forms of DNA (aka non-B DNA<\/a>) emerge in human and other primate genomes.<\/p>\n The analysis, published in Nucleic Acids Research<\/a>, helps to complete our understanding of the location and diversity of DNA formations inside our genome.<\/p>\n “When the human genome was first published in 2001, it actually wasn’t complete,” said<\/a> biologist Kateryna Makova from Pennsylvania State University.<\/p>\n “About 8 percent of the genome, largely repetitive DNA, was left undetermined.”<\/p>\n A huge research effort in the years since, culminating in a project called the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) consortium<\/a>, worked to fill in more of the data, assembling the most complete reference human genome<\/a> in 2022, before finally sequencing the last missing piece in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2025, T2T scientists took it a step further, completing the reference genomes for six ape species<\/a>: chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, Bornean orangutan, Sumatran orangutan, and siamang.<\/p>\n In their new study, Makova’s team analyzed the T2T reference genomes for humans and the six ape species, looking for patterns in the genetic code that indicated non-B DNA sequences.<\/p>\n “We now have a complete picture of the motifs that are prone to non-B DNA formation for these genomes,” said<\/a> Penn State biologist Linn\u00e9a Smeds, the first author of the study.<\/p>\n The new findings \u2013 and the T2F datasets themselves \u2013 were made possible by newer long-read sequencing technologies<\/a>, which are able to sequence genomes in fewer, longer segments (rather than short snippets that are difficult to assemble).<\/p>\n The ability to effectively zoom out and parse more genetic code at a time enables scientists to better detect functional elements in the genome, including sequences of non-B DNA that had previously been missed, and which have been understudied as a result.<\/p>\n When the team analyzed the human reference genome, the long-read data revealed more non-canonical DNA signatures than the previous short-read sequencing information had suggested.<\/p>\n “We found an overrepresentation of most types of non-B DNA motifs in the newly added sequences of the human T2T genome,” the researchers write in their paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n “The ability to analyze previously inaccessible regions of the genomes, which are rich in non-B DNA motifs, allowed us to uncover the complete genome-wide repertoire of such motifs in humans, as well as non-human apes whose T2T genomes are available to date.”<\/p>\n Overall, the researchers found many non-B DNA motifs in the human genome were located in satellite DNA<\/a> \u2013 repeating sections of non-coding DNA<\/a>, and often involved in chromosome organization and stability. In ape genomes, non-B motifs were unevenly distributed.<\/p>\n Non-canonical DNA formations can take numerous shapes, including bent DNA<\/a>, hairpins<\/a>, G-quadruplexes<\/a> (G4s), and Z-DNA<\/a>.<\/p>\n Evidence suggests these alternative forms \u2013 estimated to occupy 13 percent<\/a> of the human genome \u2013 could have multiple effects in mammalian cells, affecting DNA replication, chromosome protection, DNA transcription regulation, and methylation processes<\/a>.<\/p>\n While some evidence suggests non-B DNA can have positive effects, driving genome evolution<\/a>, for example, there’s also research indicating that non-canonical DNA forms might have harmful potential.<\/p>\n Related: Scientists Sequence Last Piece of The Human Genome: The Y Chromosome<\/a><\/p>\n “Non-B structures may impede replication and elevate mutagenesis and genome instability,” the team writes<\/a>, noting the alternative shapes are thought to contribute to cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, and genetic disorders like Werner syndrome<\/a>.<\/p>\n In time, the hope is that our growing knowledge of non-B DNA and where it emerges in the human genome will ultimately help us better understand how these non-canonical shapes might be affecting our health.<\/p>\n “There has been a recent shift in how we think about the function of the genome to go beyond sequence to include structure,” Makova says<\/a>.<\/p>\n “We hope our study will serve as a springboard for additional studies of the function of these novel structural characteristics in the genome.”<\/p>\n The findings are reported in Nucleic Acids Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n This article was fact-checked by Clare Watson<\/a> and edited by Clare Watson<\/a>. While we pride ourselves on our process, we are only human. If you spot a mistake, please let us know<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the most iconic visual representations in biological science is the double helix \u2013 the twisting, twin-stranded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,2209,82],"class_list":["post-584941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-msft-content","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Strange](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ape-genome-illustration-900x675.jpg\")
Illustration of primates and their representative chromosomes, with canonical helical and non-B DNA formations. (Dani Zemba and Makova Laboratory\/Penn State<\/a>)<\/p>\n![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786018931_699_0.jpg\")
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