IL-28 was discovered in 2003 by Zymogenetics using a genomic screening process in which the entire human genome was scanned for putative genes.

This small putative gene exists only in a few papillomavirus types.

This is very useful in genome annotations and also in the identification and characterization of functions for "newly found" putative genes.

Ab initio gene finding might be more accurately characterized as gene prediction, since extrinsic evidence is generally required to conclusively establish that a putative gene is functional.

A recent high gene estimate based on transcript evidence [ 31], again using chromosome 22, appears to result from less stringent alignment criteria, resulting in many putative genes.

Number of putative genes: 45,555, the largest number of genes ever recorded (estimate in September 2008)

It is estimated 52.6% of the genome is a coding region, with 53.9% of the putative genes containing at least one intron.

Region-specific expression As with the strain-specific genes, we identify a number of putative region-specific genes in addition to those identified by Sandberg et al. [ 1].

There are both heterochromatin and euchromatin structures within D4Z4 and one putative gene called DUX4.

These transcripts were not detected in the absence of DOX in the adult males and this putative gene was named Red herring ( Rdh ).