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Unraveling the Mystery Behind the Human Genome
In June 2000, scientists working on the Human Genome Project made an announcement that changed history forever. They mapped the first rough draft of the human genome. Who are the mysterious people behind the Human Genome Project and what did they discover? Thousands of scientists in labs all over the United States and in 18 other countries are working together to determine the order of the base pairs in the entire human genome. We now know that humans have over 30,000 genes with over 3 billion base pairs! That's a lot of As, Ts, Gs, and Cs! But what's all this hard work for, anyway? The more we know about our DNA, the more we'll know about how our bodies, cells, and diseases work. DNA research can also help scientists learn more about the similarities between living things and how they change throughout time. The work isn't over yet. Scientists expect to finish their work by 2003. So stay tuned for more genome news. . .
What: name for all the DNA in a cell
Contains: bases A, T, C, G
Size: about 3 billion bits of information long; contains around 30,000 genes
Characteristics: made of the DNA found in all our cells
Why important: gives scientists the tools to begin understanding how diseases work and how to prevent them
Which animal's genome contains the most "DNA letters"? (A, T, C, G)
fruit fly
human
salamander
Correct!
The size of an animal or plant has nothing to do with the number of parts of its genome. A salamander's genome has about 50 billion "DNA letters." Humans, on the other hand, have about 3 billion of these letters.
The difference between your genes and Albert Einstein's genes is:
yours are baggier
no difference at all
about 3 million different letters of DNA code
Correct!
Considering that we all have about 3 billion letters of DNA code in our genomes, 3 million different letters are not so many. In fact, all humans are 99.9 percent genetically the same—you do the math!
More than 95 percent of our genome is made of "junk DNA" that scientists once thought was useless.
Fact
Now they realize that these mysterious, repeating letter patterns may play an important role. Stay tuned. . .
All mammals have the same genome.
Fiction
Every animal, including you, has a unique genome. Your genome is almost the same as your best friend's, but different from your dog's genome.