Ask A Geneticist- Science

Ask A Geneticist

After reading these two fascinating articles, I discovered several interesting facts about genetics. For example, I learned that at the gene level, facts show that chimps and people are over 98% similar however we have a different number of chromosomes and the same number of genes. For example, when looking closely towards a human chromosome, you realize it is the same size as 2 chimp chromosomes. In addition, humans have 46 chromosomes and chimps carry 48 while goldfish and toucan hold about 94 and 106! Furthermore, if you remember,genes give instructions for making proteins. This is important because these proteins seem to be very similar in the two species. In fact, these proteins are very alike, but the amount of protein being made in brain are quite different which could lead to the answer to what makes humans and chimps so different. Overall, this article taught me several aspects about how chromosomes and genes work.
Throughout this second article, it discusses why humans have 46 chromosomes and not one long strand. For instance, Dr. Bronwyn MacInnis stated that since humans are more complex and complicated organisms that we divide up our chromosomes. On the other hand, simple forms of life such as bacteria only have the one long strand of chromosomes. Additionally, our chromosomes differ because of our way of reproduction. For example, some organisms like bacteria use a method called asexual reproduction which basically means to spilt in half and make an exact copy of the DNA. Lastly, I also discovered that each single egg and sperm has 23 chromosomes and half in each pair. In conclusion, I found these articles to be very informing and interesting.