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Scientists publish findings of human genome project
WebPosted Mon Feb 12 13:27:02 2001

WASHINGTON-- The race to be the first to map the entire sequence of the human genetic code is over, and it appears to be a tie.

Two separate groups of scientists have been trying to decipher the DNA code that makes each of us unique.

Now both say they have completed the initial sequence of the code, and will publish their findings in the rival publications Science and Nature.

 
The small, white coil is DNA

The so-called Human Genome Project has been touted as having the potential to revolutionize science and medicine.

Last summer when scientists announced they had successfully mapped 97 per cent of the DNA sequence, world leaders declared it a great day in the history of the human race.

    For example:
  • understanding the genome could lead to the development of medical treatments tailor-made to individual patients.

     

  • drugs could be developed that only attack the disease and leave the rest of the body alone.

     

  • it could allow doctors to predict at birth if a person is likely to develop a disease, and then design treatments to prevent it.

     

To the average person, the DNA code, or genome, is a meaningless string of letters. But to scientists, those letters hold the secret to understanding how humans are put together.

3.1-billion letters of DNA

It's a lot of information to decipher. Every human body has 100-trillion cells, and each cell has 3.1-billion letters of DNA code.

 

Lab equipment used to sequence DNA

To put that in some kind of perspective, if all the strands of DNA in the human body were put end to end, they would reach to the sun and back more than 600 times.

Or, if all the DNA information in each body was put in a book, it would fill 200 large telephone directories.

Both groups said they found some of their findings surprising.

 

Humans have about as many genes as a fruit fly

They discovered humans have far fewer genes than expected – about the same number as a fruit fly. But they say humans do a lot more with their genes.

Men more likely to mutate

They also discovered genetic mutations are twice as likely in men as in women, because they're found on the Y chromosome.

And they found that some 200 human genes apparently arose from genes that were somehow inserted into our early ancestors by bacteria.

Both groups made the same discoveries using different methods.

The study in Nature was done by the publicly-funded International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, which began a decade ago and involved scientists from around the world .

The study published in Science was done by the American biotechnology firm Celera Genomics, which only began its work three years ago.

 

 


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