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Genes & Disease
Human genome facts
The following is a brief list of facts regarding the human genome.
- The human genome is the complete list of coded instructions
needed to make a human.
- The human genome is composed of more than 3 billion nucleotide bases.
There are 4 types of nucleotide base: A- adenine, T- thymine, C- cytosine, G- guanine.
- The order of the nucleotide bases contains the instructions for making an organism.
Every three bases codes for an amino acid.
- There are 20 different amino acids that combined in different ways make different
proteins.
- The total number of human genes is estimated to be between 30,000 - 40,000.
- Worms have 19,098 genes, fruit flies have 13,602 and yeast has 6,034.
- Almost all nucleotide bases (99.9%) are exactly the same in all people.
- Less than 2% of the genome codes for proteins.
- The vast majority of the DNA in the genome (>97%) has no known function.
- The functions remain unknown for over 50% of discovered genes.
- Chromosome 1 has the most genes (2,968) and chromosome Y has the least (231).
- Humans have about 3 times as many proteins as flies and worms. This is because
different proteins can be produced by the same gene using the processes of mRNA splicing
and protein post-translational modifications.
- Our DNA is 98% identical to chimpanzees. The average amount of genetic difference between any 2 chimpanzees is 4 or 5 times
more than the average difference between any 2 humans.
- There are 100 trillion cells in your body.
- If unwound and tied together, the strands of DNA in one cell would stretch 6 feet.
- If all the DNA in your body was tied together, it would stretch to the sun and back
over 600 times.
- 12,000 letters of DNA are decoded by human genome project computers every second.
- The entire human genome requires more than 3 gigabytes of computer storage space.
- If a person recited the genome at a rate of one nucleotide per second, 24 hours a
day, it would take them a full century to complete.
- To sequence the human genome, researchers collected a large number of blood samples
from females and sperm from males. A few of these samples were then chosen at random
for sequencing. The identities of the sample sources have never been disclosed,
either to the donors or to the scientists.
The following sources were used to compile the above list on human genome facts:
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