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Related: About this forumA second look at the gorilla genome shows just how similar we are
Source: Washington Post
A second look at the gorilla genome shows just how similar we are
By Rachel Feltman April 1 at 11:39 AM
A gorilla named Sue, formerly of the Lincoln Park Zoo, is showing scientists just how similar her species is to our own. In a study published Thursday in Science, researchers presented a new, more complete genome sequence for the animal based on her blood sample.
Gorillas are some of our closest relatives, edged out only by chimpanzees and bonobos. This latest genome sequence confirms that just 1.6 percent of their genes diverge from our own. For reference, chimps and bonobos tie for 1.2 percent divergence, and after gorillas there's a sharp drop-off to 3.1 percent in orangutans great apes with Asian instead of African origins. The genomes of individual humans differ from one another by around 0.1 percent.
Because gorillas are so close to us on the family tree, their genomes are especially valuable to study. "The differences between species may aid researchers in identifying regions of the human genome that are associated with higher cognition, complex language, behavior and neurological diseases," study author Christopher Hill of the University of Washington told Reuters.
Last year, for example, scientists at Duke University pinpointed a gene regulator a gene that tells other genes how strongly to present themselves and when that makes human brains grow big. They found it by tracking the differences between human and chimpanzee genomes in areas related to brain development.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/04/01/a-second-look-at-the-gorilla-genome-shows-just-how-similar-we-are/
CompanyFirstSergeant
(1,558 posts)...that humans are happy to be so genetically close to gorillas...
But gorillas are not?
muriel_volestrangler
(101,311 posts)frogmarch
(12,153 posts)be working. Please try again later."
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)IIRC among orangs, chimps and gorillas have 2n=48 and humans have 2n=46
frogmarch
(12,153 posts)protein-coding genes in humans. How many are there in gorillas?
If there are close to the same number of these genes in gorillas, then around 320 400 of theirs diverge from ours. Is that a significant number?