A large fraction of the human genome consists of intergenic sequence. Once referred to as “junk DNA”, it is now clear that functional elements exist in intergenic regions. In fact, genome wide association studies have revealed that approximately half of all disease and trait-associated genomic regions are intergenic [1]. While some of these regions may function solely as DNA elements, it is now known that intergenic regions can be transcribed [2]–[7], and a growing list of functional noncoding RNA genes within intergenic regions has emerged [8].
