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Why do humans have so few genes?

Question of the Week, 18.7.2011

It’s quite surprising that 3 billion base pairs that make up our DNA contains “only” about 25,000 genes. It’s about the same number as a tiny flowering plant and barely more than the worm. It turns out that our genomes are far more flexible and complicated than they seemed and the old assumption that one gene corresponds to one protein is no more valid. Moreover the mechanisms of how one gene works for more proteins remain still largely a mystery.

Further reading:

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/309/5731/80.full

Libor Veis