Quote:
Originally Posted by skins
I was reading about this the other day and the following argument came up. Of the 99% of genes that people and monkeys share, is the gene(s) that determine what you look like included in that 99%? if so, why don't people and monkeys look exactly the same? is it that 1% that makes us different?
maybe there are some more knowledgeable posters out there that can answer this, cause I'm confused.
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Essentially only a small part of our genome actually codes for proteins, and thus are expressed in some way. Therefore if the 1% that is different is actually mostly made up of these areas there can be huge differences between animals, eventhough the "junk" is the same.
from...,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_genome (I know.. but i wanted a source so it didnt sound like i was making it up)....
"Protein-coding sequences (specifically, coding
exons) comprise less than 1.5% of the human genome.
[2] Aside from genes and known regulatory sequences, the human genome contains vast regions of DNA the function of which, if any, remains unknown. These regions in fact comprise the vast majority, by some estimates 97%, of the human
genome size. "