But an intriguing facet of this work is that, until now, most researchers had focused their hunt for differences on the protein-coding stretches of the genome.

但是，这项工作引人入胜的方面在于：迄今为止，大多数研究人员都把研究的焦点聚集在基因组中负责蛋白质编码的区域。

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They and other researchers think this type of RNA will prove as important as protein-coding genes in cell function.

他们和其他研究人员都认为这类RNA会被证明和蛋白质编码基因在细胞机能中有同等重要的作用。

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Scientists thought that most RNA in a cell was messenger RNA generated by protein-coding genes, RNA in ribosomes, or a sprinkling of other RNA elsewhere.

科学家们曾认为，细胞中的大多数RNA是由蛋白质编码基因产生的信使RNA，核糖体rna，或其它地方的少量rna。

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The HGP and Celera both said there were 30, 000 protein-coding genes, a mere one-third of previous estimates.

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By contrast, the current estimate of the number of protein-coding genes in the human genome is 23, 000.

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What they have found is that about 1, 800 protein-coding genes, some 7% of the total known, show signs of having been subject to recent natural selection.

ECONOMIST: Human evolution