I’m not super well-versed in genetics so the premise of the question might be wrong, but how’s it possible to capture the genetic code of a species considering genetic variation? Do scientists pick an individual’s genetic code to treat as the default? Do they somehow mark that certain segments of genetic code are prone to change while others are more fundamentally stable? It’s always confused me a little.
Again, sorry if the question doesn’t make much sense and thanks in advance for any answers.
In: Biology
There is variation in alleles, which is where the genetic variation in humans comes from. The actual order of the genes is the same in all humans.
Actually, the first mapped human genome was composed of several scientist’s samples that were working on the project at the time.
Someone else already mentioned how “mapping” an organism’s genome generally means to determine the location of its genes (i.e. where exactly they are on each chromosome, which barring weird abnormalities is constant for every individual of a species), but especially in modern times that information is obtained through sequencing, and that *does* just give you the genome of whichever individual you sequenced. “The” human reference genome, for example, is kind of averaged between a handful of individuals. There are reference genomes available for particular strains of lab mice.
Think of it like British vs American English. The sentence is the same but the spelling differs a bit here and there, like colour instead of color. Most of the time the differences are inconsequential and the meaning is unchanged.
Latest Answers