The paper appears in the Oct. 21 issue of the journal Nature. In the paper, researchers describe the final product of the Human Genome Project, which was the 13-year effort to read the information encoded in the human chromosomes that reached its culmination in 2003. The Nature publication provides rigorous scientific evidence that the genome sequence produced by the Human Genome Project has both the high coverage and accuracy needed to perform sensitive analyses, such as focusing on the number of genes, the segmental duplications involved in disease and the "birth" and "death" of genes over the course of evolution.
"Only a decade ago, most scientists thought humans had about 100,000 genes. When we analyzed the working draft of the human genome sequence three years ago, we estimated there were about 30,000 to 35,000 genes, which surprised many. This new analysis reduces that number even further and provides us with the clearest picture yet of our genome," said NHGRI Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. "The availability of the highly accurate human genome sequence in free public databases enables researchers around the world to conduct even more precise studies of our genetic instruction book and how it influences health and disease."
One of the central goals of the effort to analyze the human genome is the identification of all genes, which are generally defined as stretches of DNA that code for particular proteins. According to the new findings, researchers have confirmed the existence of 19,599 protein-c
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Contact: Geoff Spencer
spencerg@mail.nih.gov
301-402-0911
NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute
20-Oct-2004