A graphical representation of the exon-intron structure of various genes, such as that presented by the National Center for Biotechnology Information Map Viewer, suggests a digital waveform or pattern that varies either in amplitude or frequency. This observation suggests that different genes may have portions of their total exon-intron structure in common. The existence of common structural patterns across unrelated genes suggests the repeated insertion of transposable elements throughout the human genome and/or a common structural function.