What is "intergenic region"

n. (context microbiology English) DNA sequences located between genes that comprise a large percentage of the human genome with no known function.

An Intergenic region (IGR) is a stretch of DNA sequences located between genes. Intergenic regions are a subset of Noncoding DNA. Occasionally some intergenic DNA acts to control genes nearby, but most of it has no currently known function. It is one of the DNA sequences sometimes referred to as junk DNA, though it is only one phenomenon labeled such and in scientific studies today, the term is less used. Recently DNA fragments in intergenic regions were known as "dark matter" or "dark matter transcripts".