"which don't necessarily reflect anything functional (read: non-coding regions)"
It is an immense mistake to assume non-coding equates with non-functional.  Without that non-coding stuff the coding stuff would be worthless as the non-coding stuff contains all the control functions that allow coding stuff to get turned into mRNA.  A great number of classic genes are made of nothing but non-coding stuff.  In fact, all the hype in the 90s about how once we knew the human DNA sequence we would be able to solve all kinds of human disease issue has proven a totally false promise and for practical purposes having this knowledge for over 20 years now has solved next to no disease issues.  Why?  Because in the 90s we had no clue what all the non-coding stuff did and called it junk.  Since then we have learned it is not junk, is highly functional, but still can tell very little or more often nothing at all simply by looking at the non-coding sequences.

Dick

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