Difference in DNA

I

IndianCurry2010

Registered Senior Member
Read an article that there is a 0.02 % difference in DNA between all humans regardless of colour wow :confused:. However what does this actually mean ? does it mean that we have 99.98 % of our DNA code is common to everyone ?
 
IndianCurry2010 said:
Read an article that there is a 0.02 % difference in DNA between all humans regardless of colour wow :confused:. However what does this actually mean ? does it mean that we have 99.98 % of our DNA code is common to everyone ?
Click to expand...

Here's a relevant sentence:
"the genetic difference between humans and chimps is less than 2%,[3] or 20 times larger than the variation among modern humans"

from this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolutionary_genetics
 
I don't think that %difference matters that much . . . maybe just an indicator for quick comparisons. . . if someone were born without the genetic code for arms and legs (assuming that were possible) . . . would they be less human? How much could a person's DNA be altered and still result in a human?

Although the 0.02%D may be a result of the genetic bottleneck . . . would be my guess.
 
Bolshevik said:
I don't think that %difference matters that much . . . maybe just an indicator for quick comparisons. . . if someone were born without the genetic code for arms and legs (assuming that were possible) . . . would they be less human? How much could a person's DNA be altered and still result in a human?

Although the 0.02%D may be a result of the genetic bottleneck . . . would be my guess.
Click to expand...

Actually it quite simple to make someone technically inhuman, swap a chromosome arm for example and now that person is technically a different species as he can't breed with other humans as the offspring would be missing vital genetic material. But in all of this not a single gene has been changed and depending on how one does the test for homology their DNA would be still by 99.98% the same.
 
IMO, the difference in total DNA causes the whole genetic relation question to collapse onto one spectrum/metric (%). We know that some people can survive rather well with seemingly massive genetic disruption (eg, single X women), but that some people can die from a couple of SNPs (eg, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy).
 
So it doesn surprise you guys that in terms of DNA we are very similiar ? like asians and blacks are almost identical genetically ?.
 
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