Here are Yahoo and CNN articles at:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19990922/sc/science_genes_3.html
and
http://www.cnn.com/NATURE/9909/22/science.genes.reut/index.html
regarding the possibility that humans may have *twice* as many genes
(140,000) as previously thought (60,000-80,000). If this holds up it makes
the `humans share 98% of their genes with chimps' line even more shaky
(unless of course chimps turn out to have twice as many genes as first
thought too!).
Following the recent findings of other fully sequenced genomes that they
had a large number of novel genes, it may well be that humans will turn out
to have a large number of novel genes that have no homologue in their
nearest presumed relatives, the apes, and thus cannot be explained solely by
Darwinian ancestral descent.
IOW there will be a very real possibilty that an exogenous Intelligent
Designer has supernaturaly infused massive quantities of new genetic
information into an existing hominoid genome to make Homo sapiens.
Steve
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Yahoo! News Science Headlines
Wednesday September 22 9:26 AM ET
You May Have More Genes Than You Thought
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Human beings may have twice as many genes as
previously thought, researchers at a biotechnology company said Tuesday -a suggestion that
would have big implications for scientists racing to map all
the genes.
Palo Alto, California-based Incyte Pharmaceuticals, Inc. says it estimates
humans have 140,000 genes. The company says it has sequenced most of
these genes, and has added what it has found to publicly available data on
genes to come up with the figure.
"Most recent estimates are between 60,000 to 80,000 genes," Randy Scott,
chief executive officer and chief scientific officer for Incyte said in a telephone
interview.
"Our data confirms there are 140,000 or so -- so we are almost twice what
those last estimates were."
Other experts said the announcement was not surprising.
"None of us would be shocked if it turned out there were 150,000 human
genes," Dr. Francis Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research
Institute (NHGRI), said in a telephone interview.
"The estimates that there are 80,000 to 100,000 genes have always been
considered rough estimates. (But) ... I would be the first to say we don't know
yet. When we get the sequence done we won't have to have these
arguments."
Incyte is one of several companies hoping to make money on its maps of the
human genome -- the collection of all human genetic material.
HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
They are both competing with and using information from the public efforts,
including the Human Genome Project, a collegial undertaking by scientists
around the world that has as its aim making the data public to everyone for
free.
The public project and the private companies are also taking different
approaches in how they look at the genes. The Human Genome Project, in
which the NHGRI, one of the national Institutes of Health, is taking part, looks
at DNA.
Incyte, on the other hand, is looking at RNA. This is the business end of DNA
-- the part that makes a protein. The idea is to find genes that actually do
something.
"They are called expressed sequence tags (ESTs)," Scott said. "We have
been accumulating a database of these and working on confirming the
sequences and identifying how many genes are in that sequence database."
But Collins says there is a weakness in this approach, which is being used by
other companies using genome information to try and make drugs.
"The trick here is how do you count genes using this strategy?" he asked.
"You are going to encounter this same gene over and over again if you don't
recognize the sequence. These are not complete copies -- they are usually
pretty fragmented."
Genes are made up of "bases", and there are only four of them, known by
their first initials A,C, G and T. The sequence, or code, is the order in which
these four bases link up in pairs.
COUNTING PROBLEM
"If you have a piece from one end and one piece from the far end and one
piece from the middle, you might not recognize that they are from the same
gene -- you might count them as three genes," Collins said.
He thinks the Human Genome Project's method will end up being more
accurate, and predicts a "final, complete, and highly accurate sequence" by
2002.
The idea behind having a map of the human genome is to better understand
disease. For instance, many genes have been identified as having a role in
cancer, but many more remain undiscovered.
Scientists also want to understand how one person's genes vary from
another's, and how that makes each susceptible to disease. These
differences are known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs for short.
"A lot of the work with our DNA sequences is very applicable to the discovery
of SNPs," Scott said.
Scott made his announcement to a meeting of the International Genome
Sequencing and Analysis Conference in Miami, sponsored by The Institute for
Genomics Research (TIGR).
The non-profit TIGR was one of the founding organizations in the Human
Genome Project, but has since hooked up with Connecticut-based PerkinElmer Corp (now PE
Corp (NYSE:CRA - news)) to try to get work done faster.
And its former head, Craig Venter, now leads Perkin-Elmer's gene-counting
spinoff, Celera Genomics,, which competes directly with Incyte.
[...]
Copyright (c) 1996-1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
========================================================================
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CNN
Researchers: Humans have more genes than once thought
September 22, 1999
Web posted at: 10:22 AM EDT (1422 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Human beings may have twice as many genes as
previously thought, researchers at a biotechnology company said on Tuesday
-- a suggestion that would have big implications for scientists racing to map all
the genes.
Palo Alto, California-based Incyte Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (INCY.O) says it
estimates humans have 140,000 genes. The company says it has sequenced
most of these genes, and has added what it has found to publicly available
data on genes to come up with the figure.
"Most recent estimates are between 60,000 to 80,000 genes," Randy Scott,
chief executive officer and chief scientific officer for Incyte said in a telephone
interview.
"Our data confirms there are 140,000 or so -- so we are almost twice what
those last estimates were."
Other experts said the announcement was not surprising.
"None of us would be shocked if it turned out there were 150,000 human
genes," Dr. Francis Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research
Institute (NHGRI), said in a telephone interview.
"The estimates that there are 80,000 to 100,000 genes have always been
considered rough estimates. (But) ... I would be the first to say we don't know
yet. When we get the sequence done we won't have to have these
arguments."
Incyte is one of several companies hoping to make money on its maps of the
human genome -- the collection of all human genetic material.
Human Genome Project
They are both competing with and using information from the public efforts,
including the Human Genome Project, a collegial undertaking by scientists
around the world that has as its aim making the data public to everyone for
free.
The public project and the private companies are also taking different
approaches in how they look at the genes. The Human Genome Project, in
which the NHGRI, one of the national Institutes of Health, is taking part, looks
at DNA.
Incyte, on the other hand, is looking at RNA. This is the business end of DNA
-- the part that makes a protein. The idea is to find genes that actually do
something.
"They are called expressed sequence tags (ESTs)," Scott said. "We have
been accumulating a database of these and working on confirming the
sequences and identifying how many genes are in that sequence database."
But Collins says there is a weakness in this approach, which is being used by
other companies using genome information to try and make drugs.
"The trick here is how do you count genes using this strategy?" he asked.
"You are going to encounter this same gene over and over again if you don't
recognize the sequence. These are not complete copies -- they are usually
pretty fragmented."
Genes are made up of "bases," and there are only four of them, known by
their first initials A,C, G and T. The sequence, or code, is the order in which
these four bases link up in pairs.
Counting problem
"If you have a piece from one end and one piece from the far end and one
piece from the middle, you might not recognize that they are from the same
gene -- you might count them as three genes," Collins said.
He thinks the Human Genome Project's method will end up being more
accurate, and predicts a "final, complete, and highly accurate sequence" by
2002.
The idea behind having a map of the human genome is to better understand
disease. For instance, many genes have been identified as having a role in
cancer, but many more remain undiscovered.
Scientists also want to understand how one person's genes vary from
another's, and how that makes each susceptible to disease. These
differences are known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs for short.
"A lot of the work with our DNA sequences is very applicable to the discovery
of SNPs," Scott said.
Scott made his announcement to a meeting of the International Genome
Sequencing and Analysis Conference in Miami, sponsored by The Institute for
Genomics Research (TIGR).
The non-profit TIGR was one of the founding organizations in the Human
Genome Project, but has since hooked up with Connecticut-based PerkinElmer Corp (now PE
Corp) (PK.N) to try to get work done faster.
And its former head, Craig Venter, now leads Perkin-Elmer's gene-counting
spinoff, Celera Genomics, (CRA.N), which competes directly with Incyte.
[...]
(c) 1999 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
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Read our privacy guidelines.
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"It is not difficult to imagine how feathers, once evolved assumed
additional functions, but how they arose initially presumably from
reptilian scales, defies analysis." (Stahl B.J., "Vertebrate history:
Problems in Evolution", Dover: New York, 1985, p349)
Stephen E. Jones | sejones@iinet.net.au | http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
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