HUMANS and low genetic complexity

From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Thu Jul 10 2003 - 21:40:12 MDT

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    For those of you that have not been watching humans seem to
    keep getting whacked down lower on the genetic complexity
    scale -- we are down to around 30,000 genes -- less than
    double the number of found in the nematode C. elegans.

    In contrast it seems like the rice genome may be sporting
    more than double that number (~63,000) [1].

    So the next time you are eating a bowl of rice one might
    speculate on the fact that what you are eating has a greater
    natural information content than you do.

    [Caveats -- it looks like that on average a human gene may
    produce ~3 different transcripts due to alternate splicing --
    so 1 gene = ~ 3 proteins -- but it remains to be seen whether
    those 3 proteins perform demonstrably different functions
    (on average) or whether in the rice genome there are substantively
    fewer proteins produced per gene.]

    Robert

    1. Wired News, 5 Jun 2003, "Souped-Up Rice Goes Against Grain"
       by Kristen Philipkoski
       http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,59117,00.html



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