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AngelDeus · Jun 12, 2009, 05:09 PM

What is the human genome?

ironclad04 · Jun 12, 2009, 06:19 PM

If you take up biology, you will learn a great deal about this subject, just a heads up!
Its what makes us as a whole! Our bodies from the inside out! Mostly dealing with DNA

jem02081 · Jun 12, 2009, 07:38 PM

It is the full set of genes found in humans. In other words it is all of the DNA that codes for this set of genes (~22,000). People receive 1 copy of each gene from each parent. So the genome refers to what you get from one parent. This (called haploid) amount is about 3,300,000,000 base pairs. This amount of DNA weighs about 3 micrograms and if stretch out would be about 1 meter (yard) long.

ironclad04 · Jun 12, 2009, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by jem02081

It is the full set of genes found in humans. In other words it is all of the DNA that codes for this set of genes (~22,000). People receive 1 copy of each gene from each parent. So the genome refers to what you get from one parent. This (called haploid) amount is about 3,300,000,000 base pairs. This amount of DNA weighs about 3 micrograms and if stretch out would be about 1 meter (yard) long.

That's a mouth full! Though you are right in a sense about the statics, but 10-12 percent of the human genome is still undiscoverd?? Maybe that's where parents come in?

jem02081 · Jun 12, 2009, 09:14 PM

Originally Posted by ironclad04

but 10-12 percent of the human genome is still undiscoverd??? maybe thats where parents come in??

Undiscovered? What are you talking about?
10% of our genes certainly aren’t remaining to be discovered.

Of course you could invoke the Rumsfeld “unknown unknowns” (As I remember it “there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know.”)

But seriously, 5 – 10% is reasonable for the number of genes / DNA segments which have copy number differences between “normal” people (called CNV). And 5- 10 % is a reasonable amount of the genome which remains to be assembled in the big jigsaw puzzle called the genome.
Calling either of these “undiscovered” would be a stretch!

asking · Oct 26, 2009, 12:58 PM

A genome is a set of genes. Humans have a genome made up of about 22,000 genes, like jem says.

Every organism has a genome, even potatoes.

But so do dogs, cats, worms, and every plant you can think of. Even a bacterium has genome. Every organism has a complete set of genes, or a genome.