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From: info <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2001 4:54 PM
Subject: [mobilize-globally] First Look at Human Genome Shows How Little There Is
Subject:
[Am-Adv] First Look at Human Genome Shows How Little There
Is
Date:
Sun, 11 Feb 2001 08:00:37 -0800 (PST)
From:
Paul Pureau <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Top Stories Headlines
Sources: Reuters | AP | AP U.S. | ABCNEWS.com
Sunday February 11 8:20 AM ET
First Look at Human Genome Shows How Little There Is
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first in-depth look at the
human genetic code has revealed much less than
anticipated -- about half to a third the number of
expected genes, scientists will announce on Monday.
They said their findings so far made it clear that far
from being a blueprint, the human genetic code was
only a guidepost. The true directions for what makes a
human
being lie not in letters of code but in what the body
does with that code.
They have found a few interesting tidbits.
Most of the variation -- the mutations that underlie
evolution and bring gradual change -- is on the Y
chromosome. That means men are responsible for most
mutations, because only men have a Y chromosome.
They have also confirmed that there is no genetic
basis for what people describe as race, and found only
a few small differences set one person apart from
another.
``You and I differ by 2.1 million genetic letters from
each other,'' Craig Venter, chief scientific officer
at Celera Genomics Inc., which carried out one of the
two
studies being published, said in a telephone
interview.
``Probably only a few thousand of those differences
account for the biological differences between us,
which means we all are essentially identical twins --
even more
than I thought.''
Race Is 'Not A Scientific Concept'
Celera used DNA from five volunteers -- three women
and two men, ethnically African-American, Chinese,
Hispanic and white.
``You can clearly tell the females from the males
because of the X and Y chromosomes, but race is not a
scientific concept,'' Venter said.
The future, both teams of researchers say, lies in
understanding the proteins that make up people and not
so much the genes that control production of the
proteins.
This infant scientific field is known as proteomics.
``There are about 30,000 to 40,000 protein-coding
genes in the human genome -- only about twice as many
as in worm or fly,'' members of the International
Human
Genome Sequencing Consortium, the public effort, wrote
in their report.
``However, the genes are more complex, with more
alternative splicing generating a larger number of
protein products,'' they added in their report, to be
published in
next week's issue of the journal Nature.
In other words, the proteins for which genes code can
be mixed and matched to make even more, just as the
primary colors -- yellow, red and blue -- can be mixed
to make a myriad of colors.
Rockville, Maryland-based Celera finds a similar
number in its own, separate analysis, published in the
journal Science -- somewhere between 26,383 and
39,114.
Originally, scientists thought there were about
100,000 human genes, but in recent years revised that
downward to between 60,000 and 80,000.
The two studies were to be released on Monday as part
of a carefully coordinated and controlled
announcement. But British Sunday newspapers broke the
careful
embargo, so the material was released on Saturday
night.
Researchers said they were surprised to find so few
genes.
``On the one hand, this is spectacular news because it
means we have only a third as many proteins to
understand,'' Eric Lander, head of genome sequencing
at the
Whitehead Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), said in a telephone interview.
``On the other hand, we may feel we have set ourselves
a larger problem. Although there are fewer components,
they fit together in more complex ways,'' added
Lander, whose lab did much of the work in the public
effort.
``If anyone found the basis for the pride of our
species in the number of genes we had, they may have
to rethink it.''
Venter agrees. ``There are only a few hundred genes
that we have in the human genome that are not in the
mouse genome,'' he said.
It's Not A Blueprint
``In fact, what has been said about the human genome,
that it is the blueprint for humans, it's not true. We
don't think blueprint is the right metaphor.''
Both teams had announced jointly last June that they
had sequenced the human genome -- 3.1 billion base
pairs, the rungs that make up the ladder-like double
helix
of DNA. But all they had was a repetitive readout of
A's, C's, T's and G's, the nucleotides that pair up.
They did not know what that code said.
Eight months later, they have done the first analysis
and have found what they believe to be a history of
human evolution. The changes that made humans a little
different from other animals had been preserved,
Lander said.
``In June, maybe people thought we had this big pile
of letters and it was all stuff,'' Lander said. ``But
I don't know if people realize that we just found the
world's
greatest history book. We are going to be up every
night reading tales from the genome. It's so cool.''
=====
Paul Pureau
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