Tag Archives: Human

Neanderthal Grave
Jun 10 2012

Neanderthal DNA Sequencing

Neanderthal Silhouette

Neanderthal Silhouette (Photo credit: eri~ DNA sequencing is an extremely important tool in the fields of Genetics and Molecular Biology.

~ The Human Genome sequence was finished in 2001. That is 3,000,000,000 bits of information were decoded and put in order – a BIG job.

~ Now, using 38,000-year-old bone fragments, researchers have sequenced 3.7 billion base pairs of Neanderthal DNA.

~ Neanderthals are our closest relatives on the hominid family tree. We split from them about 500,000 years ago and for the next 475,000 years or so, modern humans and Neanderthals coexisted on the planet and sometimes even in the same region.

~ Neanderthals vanished about 30,000 years ago, leaving modern humans to inherit the Earth. Why humans ended up being more successful has long been a topic of debate.

~ Interestingly, the newly completed sequence shows that humans and Neanderthals have genomes that are 99.5 percent the same.

~ By comparing the human and Neanderthal genomes with that of our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, researchers hope to tell which genes changed very recently, giving modern humans an edge.

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Apr 16 2012
Gallery

Chimgillas

Chimps/Gorillas

This gallery contains 2 photos.

     When it comes to Chimps and Gorillas there are a lot of similarities between them and humans. Numerous studies on blood types, showed Chimpanzees have the blood type A and a very small amount of O, and they never have … Continue reading →

DNA
Dec 24 2011

The Human Genome

 

human_genome

Image by abekat via Flickr

The human genome is the complete list of coded instructions needed to make a human.

~ There are 4 types of nucleotide base: A- adenine, T- thymine, C- cytosine, G- guanine.

~ 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.

~ 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).

~ There are 100 trillion cells in your body.

~ If unwound and tied together, the strands of DNA in one cell would stretch 6 feet.

~ 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.

~ 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. 

 

Neanderthal & CroMagnon
Dec 23 2011

We Share The Same Language Gene As Neanderthal…FOXP2

 

English: neanderthal modern human comparison

The Neanderthal Genome Project

~ DNA sequencing is an extremely important tool in the fields of Genetics and Molecular Biology. This article explains the complicated process quite well.

~ The Human Genome sequence was finished in 2001. That is 3,000,000,000 bits of information were decoded and put in order – a BIG job.

~ Now, using 38,000-year-old bone fragments, researchers have sequenced 3.7 billion base pairs of Neanderthal DNA.

~ Neanderthals are our closest relatives on the hominid family tree. We split from them about 500,000 years ago and for the next 475,000 years or so, modern humans and Neanderthals coexisted on   the planet and sometimes even in the same region.

~ Neanderthals vanished about 30,000 years ago, leaving modern humans to inherit the Earth. Why humans ended up being more successful has long been a topic of debate.

neanderthal skulls

~ Interestingly, the newly completed sequence shows that humans and Neanderthals have genomes that are 99.5 percent the same.

~ By comparing the human and Neanderthal genomes with that of our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, researchers hope to tell which genes changed very recently, giving modern humans an edge.