For the first time, researchers have sequenced all 3,117,275,501 bases of our genetic code
The human genome is finally full. Researchers have been working for many years towards this objective, and the Human Genome Project claimed victory in 2001, when it had learn nearly all of an individual’s DNA. But the cussed remaining 8 % of the genome took one other twenty years to decipher. These closing sections have been extremely repetitive and extremely variable amongst people, making them the hardest elements to sequence. Yet they revealed a whole bunch of latest genes, together with genes concerned in immune responses and people chargeable for people creating bigger brains than our primate ancestors. “Now that we have one complete reference, we can understand human variation and how we changed with respect to our closest related species on the planet,” says geneticist Evan Eichler of the University of Washington, one among the co-chairs of the Telomere-to-Telomere consortium that completed the genome.
Editor’s Note (7/22/22): The graphic on this article was edited after posting to appropriate the variety of bases in a completely gapless genomic sequence in 2022.
This article was initially printed with the title “3,117,275,501 Bases, 0 Gaps” in Scientific American 327, 2, 92 (August 2022)
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0822-92
Rights & PermissionsABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
