After the Genome Project, most biologists believed that only about 1–2% of our DNA was functional, coding for proteins that perform essential tasks in the body. This protein-coding DNA was thought to be the genome’s primary purpose, creating mRNAs to direct protein synthesis. The remaining DNA was considered “junk,” with no biological function. However, after the ENCODE project, researchers were quite surprised to learn that at one time or another, at least 75% of the genome gets transcribed into RNAs. Scientists believe that RNA carries out some crucial tasks, such as turning genes on and off, but the full functionality of RNA sequences has yet to be discovered.