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Chimps, Humans Differ More Then Thought

Posted by Hemos on from the looking-at-our-past dept.

DrLudicrous writes "CNN is carrying an article about a researcher at CalTech. Biologist Roy Briton undertook a comparison of human and chimp genomes, and came up with a 5% difference, versus the usual 2% cited in the literature. You can read the article at CNN. This seems to point out that chimps and humans most likely had a more distant ancestor than thought- but the results also need to be examined and redone by 3rd parties to ensure objectivity. Interesting stuff."

2 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. We have a different number of chromosomes.... by mishac · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Chimpanzees have 48 chromosomes and we have 46. Doesn't that mean that we the genomes are at LEAST 4.167% (2/48) different? Then where did the 2% figure come from in the first place? I realise that having less chromosomes doesn't mean that we dont ahve the same genes, which could be in different places than in a chimp, but doesnt this count as a "difference" too?

  2. Re:Chimp/Gorilla Genome project by Gerry+Gleason · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Now that there is a baseline sequence for humans, we need to do the same for all the great apes. I would think this would be valuable on a number of levels.

    This is why we can't just do the diff, although I would think order of billions would be a bit big on most platforms as well.