Evolutionists have long sought mechanisms for the origin of reproductive barriers between populations, mechanisms which are thought to be key to the formation of new species. A recent article in ScienceDaily finds that “Junk DNA” might be the “mechanism that prevents two species from reproducing.” Basically, so-called “junk”-DNA is involved in helping to package chromosomes in the cell. If two species have different “junk” DNA, then this prevents the proteins in the egg from properly packaging the chromosomes donated by the sperm. The organism does not develop properly.

As the article, titled “Junk DNA Mechanism That Prevents Two Species From Reproducing Discovered,” explains:

during early development, the proteins required for cell division come from the mother. The researchers speculate that the heterochromatin of the male D. melanogaster‘s X chromosome has rapidly evolved, such that after mating, the machinery involved in DNA packaging from a D. simulans mother no longer recognizes the D. melanogaster father’s “junk” DNA, Ferree said.

Even though this study only looked at fruit fly non-coding DNA, the amount of non-coding DNA was enormous: “The problematic region of D. melanogaster‘s X chromosome contains about 5 million base pairs of DNA, while the same region of D. simulans‘ X chromosome contains only about 100,000 base pairs, a 50-fold difference.” It seems that “junk” DNA–long ignored by evolutionists–not only has key functions for chromosomal packaging but also for microevolutionary processes that help create reproductive isolation between populations.