4 ms·
I don't understand percentages used to describe genetic similarity. I mean I heard that humans share 50% with bananas and 96% with chimpanzees. So if 4% is the
by dmm 11y ago
I don't understand percentages used to describe genetic similarity. I mean I heard that humans share 50% with bananas and 96% with chimpanzees.
So if 4% is the difference between humans and chimps then 2-6% can be very significant, right? Or can those numbers even be compared?
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoYeah. Don't know. Maybe its "of the genes that vary"?
- dogma1138 11y agoThe percentage difference is calculated using a very odd system which ignores all the actual differences. For example if Humans and Bananas each have 5000 coding genes in common the difference will be measured only on those genes we actually share (out of 20-25K coding genes in humans, no clue how many coding genes do bananas have), so the difference is actually much greater than the 50%, 4%, 1% or what ever figure you get because the big differences are simply discarded. These days there's a cartoon for everything :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbY122CSC5w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbY122CSC5w And this is without even going into gene expression and epigentics which play a role which some might even consider to be bigger than what actual genetic data you might happen to carry along with you. Heck chickens still have the genes to grow teeth and feathered scales like the dinosaurs they've evolved from however these genes are not expressed anymore in nature.