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hi,
i've got a question about the sequence of the dna in different human beings.
i know that each indivdual differs from the other in their arrangement of base pairs to the strands of dna. but there must be some genes or A-T,G-C sequence in everyone, coding for the really essential activities and organs, like cells of heart,eyes etc.
how many such genes are there and how many base pairs are present in them.
genetics
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carolinethorn
- Former Expert
- Posts: 393
- Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2005 2:40 pm
Hi,
These are good questions. There are several places to find out information about the human genome. Try this one
http://www.nature.ca/genome/03/a/03a_11_e.cfm
It has a link for how big is the human genome and can tell you how many genes we think there are. I say "think" because we are still determining the exact number of genes. There are many parts of the genome that have been sequenced but their function has not been studied.
Each individual human differs from another by less than 1% of the genome, if they differed by as much as 1% they would be a chimpanzee! Here is a good website about human variation
http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/resour ... p4_1.shtml
There are many genes that contain the instructions for buiilding and maintianing an organ such as the heart for example. At the moment we don't even know exactly how many and which ones they are. We know some of them because when there are changes in the DNA in those genes it causes a disease that effects the heart. For example we know about the gene KCNQ1 and that it is involved in how the heart muscle beats because there are people with changes in this gene where it causes there heart to have an irregular heart beat or an arrhythmia.
There is lots of very interesting information about the human genome and its variation on the internet. This website also has some useful nformation about genes and disease
http://www.dnalc.org/home.html
There are also websites about a project called "HapMap" that has been looking at differences between individuals from different populations to try to find those that might cause diseases to occur at different frequencies in different populations.
And the National Geographic has a porject to look at human genome variation and how is occured as peoples migrated across the world.
Best of luck. Post back if you have more questions.
-Caroline
These are good questions. There are several places to find out information about the human genome. Try this one
http://www.nature.ca/genome/03/a/03a_11_e.cfm
It has a link for how big is the human genome and can tell you how many genes we think there are. I say "think" because we are still determining the exact number of genes. There are many parts of the genome that have been sequenced but their function has not been studied.
Each individual human differs from another by less than 1% of the genome, if they differed by as much as 1% they would be a chimpanzee! Here is a good website about human variation
http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/resour ... p4_1.shtml
There are many genes that contain the instructions for buiilding and maintianing an organ such as the heart for example. At the moment we don't even know exactly how many and which ones they are. We know some of them because when there are changes in the DNA in those genes it causes a disease that effects the heart. For example we know about the gene KCNQ1 and that it is involved in how the heart muscle beats because there are people with changes in this gene where it causes there heart to have an irregular heart beat or an arrhythmia.
There is lots of very interesting information about the human genome and its variation on the internet. This website also has some useful nformation about genes and disease
http://www.dnalc.org/home.html
There are also websites about a project called "HapMap" that has been looking at differences between individuals from different populations to try to find those that might cause diseases to occur at different frequencies in different populations.
And the National Geographic has a porject to look at human genome variation and how is occured as peoples migrated across the world.
Best of luck. Post back if you have more questions.
-Caroline