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Just 2.5% of DNA turns mice into men
NewScientist.com ^ | May 30, 2002 | Andy Coghlan

Posted on 06/02/2002 5:01:26 PM PDT by scripter

Mice and men share about 97.5 per cent of their working DNA, just one per cent less than chimps and humans. The new estimate is based on the comparison of mouse chromosome 16 with human DNA. Previous estimates had suggested mouse-human differences as high as 15 per cent.

The new work suggests that neither genome has changed much since we shared a common ancestor 100 million years ago. "The differences are going to be few rather than many," says Richard Mural of Celera Genomics, the Maryland company that compared the mouse chromosome with human DNA.

"Perhaps 100 million years separating the two genomes is not long enough for wholesale rearrangement," says Mural, or conservation may be necessary to preserve essential functions.

However, Tim Hubbard, head of genome analysis at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, is sceptical about the significance of the 2.5 per cent difference. He thinks that the genes might in fact all be identical and that differences between species might arise solely through divergence in the "regulatory regions" which switch other genes on and off.

Nonetheless, scientists are hopeful that the close match will enable researchers to unpick much more rapidly the genetic roots of human disease. By "knocking out" genes in mice using genetic engineering, they can learn the gene's function.

Doppelganger genes

Mural and his colleagues found chunk after chunk of matching DNA in mice and humans. Of the 731 genes they located on the mouse chromosome, only 14 did not have a doppelganger in humans. Likewise, there were only 21 genes in the corresponding regions of human DNA that did not turn up in the mouse.

Unlike its human genome sequence, Celera is publishing the mouse chromosome 16 data openly on the internet. But the remaining mouse data will require subscribers to pay to see it. "We've no real plans to publish anything more," says Mural.

A version of the mouse genome is already available free of charge on the internet, assembled by researchers at publicly-funded institutes around the world. The Sanger Institute is one of the participating institutes and Hubbard claims that the Celera data is inferior.

"We have fewer gaps, and overall our fragments are larger," he says. He dismisses the Celera paper as little more than a puff for the company: "It's a taster for what they are selling."

Journal reference: Science (vol 296, p 1661)


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: andycoghlan; cambridge; celeragenomics; chimps; crevolist; dna; genome; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; maryland; mice; mouse; newscientist; origins; richardmural; sangerinstitute; timhubbard; unitedkingdom
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1 posted on 06/02/2002 5:01:26 PM PDT by scripter
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To: crevo_list;VadeRetro;Junior;PatrickHenry;Heartlander,gore3000;AndrewC;Phaedrus;Buggman;Tribune7
Ping.
2 posted on 06/02/2002 5:03:25 PM PDT by scripter
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Comment #3 Removed by Moderator

To: scripter
Unless the man is Jerry Nadler, whereupon the differential is 0.0000000001%...from "weasel."
4 posted on 06/02/2002 5:05:34 PM PDT by Poohbah
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To: inquest;general_re;betty_boop;condorman
Ping.
5 posted on 06/02/2002 5:05:41 PM PDT by scripter
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To: Poohbah
Unless the man is Jerry Nadler, whereupon the differential is 0.0000000001%...from "weasel."

I sorry, I disagree. It's gotta be closer than that!

6 posted on 06/02/2002 5:09:35 PM PDT by scripter
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To: scripter
Whose post was #3, and what happened?
7 posted on 06/02/2002 5:27:38 PM PDT by PatrickHenry
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To: scripter
The removal of all or part of the prefrontal lobe of the cerebrum turns a man into a (Democ)rat.
8 posted on 06/02/2002 5:40:34 PM PDT by IronJack
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To: scripter
Of the 731 genes they located on the mouse chromosome, only 14 did not have a doppelganger in humans. Likewise, there were only 21 genes in the corresponding regions of human DNA that did not turn up in the mouse.

We'll see where this leads. Right now according to those numbers and the one mouse chromosome being analyzed. The difference is just ~2.5% if you divide 35/2 by 731. Suddenly the neighborhood is crowded.

Human brains over chimp

Dramatic differences in gene activity distinguish human and chimpanzee brains, say researchers. The difference may explain our differing behaviour and looks, despite sharing 98.7% of our DNA.

And Craig Venter looks more and more correct in his statement --- My view of biology is 'We don't know shit.' "
Internet posting of article in New Yorker

9 posted on 06/02/2002 6:36:09 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: PatrickHenry
It was Mickey Mouse giving the bird.

Not particularly suited to a family site.

10 posted on 06/02/2002 7:24:24 PM PDT by Poohbah
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To: PatrickHenry
Whose post was #3, and what happened?

I don't know but it disappeared real quick. I was on my way out the door earlier, so I didn't have time to post, but when I caught scripter's ping, it (#5) was the last post on the thread at the time. And #3 was already gone at that point.

It (#3) was posted no earlier than 8:03 PM Eastern, and it disappeared sometime before post #6 was made at 8:09 PM Eastern. But these threads don't get any special scrutiny, no way...

11 posted on 06/02/2002 7:24:35 PM PDT by general_re
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To: Poohbah
Ha - that'll teach me to jump the gun. If I'd waited another 30 seconds or so, I'd have seen your post ;)
12 posted on 06/02/2002 7:26:45 PM PDT by general_re
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To: Poohbah
It was Mickey Mouse giving the bird.

Thanks for the info.

13 posted on 06/02/2002 7:28:47 PM PDT by PatrickHenry
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To: Poohbah
It was Mickey Mouse giving the bird.

What's wrong with this?


14 posted on 06/02/2002 7:40:07 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: general_re
I have Matt Ridley's book, Genome .. In the introduction he wrote:
Imagine that the genome is a book.
There are 23 chapters, called chromosomes.
Each chapter contains several thousand stories, called genes.
Each story is made up of paragraphs, called exons, which are interrupted by advertisements called introns.
Each paragraph is made up of words called codons.
Each word is written in letters, called bases.
There are one billion words in the book, which makes it longer than 800 Bibles... This is a gigantic document, an immense book, a recipe of extravagant length, and it all fits inside the microscopic nucleus of a tiny cell that fits easily on the head of a pin.

15 posted on 06/02/2002 7:42:09 PM PDT by ValerieUSA
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To: ValerieUSA
I have Matt Ridley's book, Genome .. In the introduction he wrote:

Good analogy except that it is apparently the advertisements that are the real story. These two different books contain at least one chapter that reads pretty much the same with respect to the paragraphs.

16 posted on 06/02/2002 8:00:05 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: scripter
Of Mice And Men
17 posted on 06/02/2002 8:10:43 PM PDT by chaosagent
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To: ValerieUSA
Yes, it is all quite amazing how from so little so much comes out. Some fools think this gigantic book was written by random chance.
18 posted on 06/02/2002 10:40:55 PM PDT by gore3000
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To: AndrewC
And Craig Venter looks more and more correct in his statement --- My view of biology is 'We don't know shit.' "

Yes, it is funny that each time we think we are close to discovering the secrets of life and the universe we end up finding out that we know less than we ever knew. Until recently we thought that genes were the key to all human functions, now we have found that it is the 95% of DNA which the know-nothing evolutionists had been calling 'junk DNA' is where the real secrets are (and when we find those we surely will find something else even more astonishing that we do not know).

19 posted on 06/02/2002 10:46:41 PM PDT by gore3000
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To: scripter

20 posted on 06/02/2002 11:27:12 PM PDT by paix
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