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Definition and classification of Genes


teemgk

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hi everyone,

How are u?

Let me ask some basic questions. Here is the problem! I'm sure nearly everyone in this forum has been asked this question. Human and primate have 98% similar genes and in fact we, human being have 100% similar gene in this sense. So how can we say the individual differences? how can we differentiate human races? human and primate? distinguish between primate and other animals? I only know the difference between prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Plz answer the questions or tell me references? thz in advance.

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  • 3 weeks later...

What this tells us is that it does not require huge amount of genetic information for a vast biological diversity. To give some numbers: a human has around 25,000 genes. A single-celled simple bacterium already has about 4000. There is not a lot of difference between that, considering the vast difference in complexity.

With regards to your other question, the number of similarity depends a bit on the metrics, but it is pretty much clear that they are our closest extant relatives and it also makes it abundantly clear that we are primates. Note that not only genes are relevant, but also non-coding regions (i.e. DNA loci that do not code for proteins). Still, it shows that we are not vastly different from all the other animals and highlighted our common ancestry. It also shows that the notion that humans are something vastly different from all the other animals are false.

 

Below the species level we do not have a clear biological distinction, i.e. we are unable to just look at genetics and draw out clearly human races. As such most regard race as an arbitrary classification scheme that can be useful for categorizing in certain contexts, but it does not hold universal biological values.

Edited by CharonY
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