Genetic breakthrough that reveals the differences between humans

[DoYouEverWonder]

22 November 2006

Scientists have discovered a dramatic variation in the genetic make-up of humans that could lead to a fundamental reappraisal of what causes incurable diseases and could provide a greater understanding of mankind.

The discovery has astonished scientists studying the human genome - the genetic recipe of man. Until now it was believed the variation between people was due largely to differences in the sequences of the individual "letters" of the genome.

It now appears much of the variation is explained instead by people having multiple copies of some key genes that make up the human genome.

Until now it was assumed that the human genome, or "book of life", is largely the same for everyone, save for a few spelling differences in some of the words. Instead, the findings suggest that the book contains entire sentences, paragraphs or even whole pages that are repeated any number of times.

The findings mean that instead of humanity being 99.9 per cent identical, as previously believed, we are at least 10 times more different between one another than once thought - which could explain why some people are prone to serious diseases.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2007490.ece

[Trajan]

1. 10 times more different ....

If we are 99.9 % identical, then 100.0 - 99.9 = 0.1 % different

10 x 0.1 = 1 % different

So now we could be 99.0 % identical ?

[Kagemusha]

2. Yep!

Add a few billion people and it adds up.

[azurnoir]

4. Isn't all life on earth

something like 94% identical generically? That would include plant life too.

[Thor_MN]

13. That's so pre-11/22 thinking...

:)

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Yes, that's what they are claiming

but that .9% more, make a big difference when you're dealing with genetics.

The big deal here is that instead of just two copies of a particular gene, you can have multiple copies and there seems to be lot of variations from person to person.

[knight_of_the_star]

5. Run the numbers and it adds up

Especially when you run through 6 billion.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Rough figures given on the Nature website - 99.5%

These variable regions received short shrift for many years. When the human genome sequence was pieced together, they were largely glossed over, because researchers were focused on finding one overarching reference sequence — and because the repetitive nature of the segments makes them hard to sequence. "It was swept under the rug," says Michael Wigler who is also mapping CNVs at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York.
...
They found nearly 1,500 such regions, taking up some 12% of the human genome. That doesn't mean that your DNA is 12% different from mine (or 88% similar), because any two people's DNA will differ at only a handful of these spots.

According to the team's back-of-the-envelope calculations, one person's DNA is probably 99.5% similar to their neighbour's. Or a bit less. "I've tried to do the calculation and it's very complicated," says Hurles. "It all depends on how you do the accounting."

The answer is also unclear because researchers think that there are many more variable blocks of sequence that are 10,000 or 1,000 letters long and were excluded from the current study. Because of limits with their methods, the new map mainly identified variable chunks larger than 50,000 letters long.

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/061120/full/061120-9.html

I'm slightly disappointed that the confident "99.9%" figure that was earlier bandied about now turns out to have been more of a guess. With figures like that, I expect scientists to have actually counted - or for them to give a range if there's really a lot of uncertainty.

[baldguy]

16. 1% makes a difference

This is the chemical composition of hemoglobin:
C₅₅H₇₂O₅N₄Fe

This is the chemical composition of chlorophyll:
C₅₅H₇₂O₅N₄Mg

[sakabatou]

23. Cool.

[Canuckistanian]

6. So, I AM different

I always KNEW I was immortal... bow before me, peasants.... for I am your salvation.

Just wait a minute, my wife says I have to take out the garbage. BRB....

[BikeWriter]

7. Yep, you're special... Just like everyone else!

:hi:

[Bassic]

22. You're immortal?

You have inside you blood of kings?

(I'm too tired to not be dumb)

[POAS]

9. But is this enough of a differnece to explain

the 30% that still adore Bush?

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Yes

it means they have more 'stupid genes' then the rest of us.

[POAS]

11. Well looking at it statistically

it does start to add up. Using rough numbers here we see the if we have 300 million people in the US then the 30% of Bushies come to 90 million. Now I believe that world population is about 6 Billion now so the Bushies here comprise about 1.5% of the worlds population (a frighteningly high number I might add) which just about works out right for the numbers mentioned above.

Leading me to two points.

1. Why the hell do they all have to be concentrated here in the US?
2. Of course they are all here in the US, given the rights xenophobia they would tend to stay close to home and do their breeding here.

[catzies]

24. And then they multiply

In my perfect world stupid people don't breed. :evilgrin:

[Thor_MN]

12. The absolute population of the world means nothing to this

I think what they are saying is that two individuals could differ by UP TO 10 time more (now up to 1%) than they previously thought. That doesn't mean extending that to billions of people changes that in any way - all of them may differ by up to 1% than any other person, the variation is all within that same 1%.

What I find intriguing is the notion of genetic sentences. Consider the effects of protein manufacture could vary because of various proteins created in close proximity (time/place) - or not. It could explain some mysteries. One may not not be lacking anything, just not getting the full benefits of sychronized production if the genes play out differently. Synergistic and antagonistic effects may be behind many unexplained diseases. Very cool. I vote that all benefits gained from this knowledge be withheld from the anti-science, earth is 6000 years old crowd.

[Crim_n al]

19. Sorry, no-one can do that.

My relatives all have tended to live healthily into their late nineties,
and none that I know of have had cancer or heart disease. My creationist
brothers benefit from this genetic resiliance just as much as I do.

But, they both have child onset diabetes, and the younger one didn't get
it until mid twenties, just after he became a born-again.

:evilgrin:

Perhaps being a science-hating born-again is itself influenced by a
particular genetic sequence.

[Vidar]

14. I'm glad some of this research is being done in Britain, where

it might be allowed to benefit the people rather than corporations which will quickly hijack it in the US.

[customerserviceguy]

17. That's because the UK has national health insurance

where everybody is covered. I'm dead certain that genetics will be used to exclude great numbers of people from coverage in the US someday. The insurance industry is already agist and sexist, this will give them the cover they need to be racist, as well.

There's only one solution, get national health care here in the US before the money brokers (Andrew Tobias called them "the invisible bankers") figure out how to screw most of us out of health coverage.

[Vidar]

18. I wholeheartedly agree.

[lonestarnot]

15. Whoa! Phenomenal!

[Zorra]

20. I've always had this theory that the closest common ancestor of fascists

was the crocodile, or some other type of nasty, small brained, cold blooded reptile. I always wondered why fascists were seemingly so very different from normal human beings that had hearts and consciences.

This discovery makes theory seem more plausible.

[Neshanic]

21. So they are closer to explaining monkey-boy's issues?

[w4rma]

25. Organic programming code. Maybe computer programmers and language translators should study this.

I think the repeating code is the equivalent of repeated procedure calls.

Imho, genetic code should be looked at as one would look at the assembly language of a solid state computer...

No, maybe assembly language is too high level a programming language for this analogy? Instead, the *machine* language of a solid state computer is probably more appropriate to this analogy.

[FarrenH]

26. What's slightly worrisome

is that they're saying they can more readily identify an individuals "race" purely from their genes with these new findings. Which means the racists are gonna lock onto it in no time as proof that race is a significant genetic divide rather than largely being a social construct - expect more "Bell Curve" style tracts. I've been involved in heated exchanges with unreconstructed racists masquerading as "realists" looking at it from a "scientific perspective" on a South African site and based on those discussions I can assure you this is going to be twisted to suit racist ideas in some quarters.