EvC Forum: [i]Homo troglodytes[/i] Genome Project, DNA 96% {us}

The 67 scientists from five nations leading the chimp genome project are reporting their results today in a series of eight papers published in the journal Nature. Researchers leading the project described their work Wednesday at a Washington press conference.

Lining up 3 billion bits of genetic code, the chimp genome team determined that 96 percent of the protein-coding genes in both chimps and humans were identical, while in some stretches of DNA where genes either regulate other genes or whose function is unknown, as much as 99 percent of the genetic material in both is identical, the scientists concluded.

So we now have complete genome comparisons instead of estimates, and the final count is 96% identical.

This makes us more closely related than many species that are lumped into the same {Genus}, and is more evidence that Chimps should be considered Homo troglodytes as some have suggested.

Among the 35 million tiny bits of DNA in the human genome that differ from chimps, for example, lie clues to the manner in which natural selection -- the basic machinery of evolution -- has given humans the unique ability to walk upright, to use language and to think, reason and develop complex tools, said Dr. Robert Waterston of the University of Washington, the senior author of the principal comparative study. Mutations in the DNA of many of those genes may well have occurred within the past 250,000 years, and because they proved so beneficial, they spread rapidly throughout the human population, he said.

Some classes of genes, however, appear to have changed relatively rapidly in both chimps and humans, the scientists say. They include genes involved in hearing, transmission of nerve signals and production of sperm.

If this can be confirmed, these would be the genetic changes that separated Homo sapiens from Homo heidelbergensis and push back other evidence of the first Homo sapiens occurring a little over 160,000 years ago, from "mitochondrial eve\adam" to the oldest known anatomically modern fossils. This should not be a surprise.

And this would touch on some previous claims of faster genetic change in humans than other apes, while changes in sperm genes would also be evidence of sexual selection.

From Humans March to a Faster Genetic "Drummer" Than Other Primates, UC Riverside Research Says (click):

During the same amount of time, humans accumulated more genetic novelties than chimpanzees, making the human/chimpanzee genetic distance larger than that between the chimpanzee and gorilla.

Metaphorically speaking, Dugaiczyk said, Humans and other primates march to the rhythm of a drum that looks identical; the same size, shape and sound. But, the human drum beats faster.

This last study was touted as "Research Runs Counter to Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection"

The process was not random, Dugaiczyk said, and it was not subject to an environmental "natural selection," separating winners and losers as theorized by Darwin.

"We are not contending that natural selection does not exist, but that in this instance it is a chemical process within human chromosomes that explains why humans have an explosive expansion of DNA repeats, and other primates do not," Dugaiczyk said.

However this view ignores the contribution of sexual selection in the development of the human mind and other characteristics.

Run-away sexual selection can easily push the envelope of development faster and further than survival selection, which must wait for opportunistic events to be applied.

Back to the new results on the Chimp Genome:

Again from Man, chimps share genes - Comparison of genomes shows thousands are virtually identical (click):

Scientists have estimated from the fossil record that the evolutionary lineages of humans and the great apes like chimpanzees diverged from a common ancestor between 5 and 8 million years ago, and the chimp genome team believes the split must have occurred roughly 6 million years ago.

Someone here said 4 million and I said I thought it was closer to 7 million; I'll take 6 as a good compromise

Over all the millennia since that time, relatively few changes have occurred in the chimp genome, Waterston and his colleagues said. That has placed humans at a disadvantage in some areas. Chimps, for example, have been able to resist many infections like HIV and AIDS, and they don't get malaria, diabetes, cancer or Alzheimer's -- while humans can succumb to all these maladies.

Yet, as Collins noted, "we have peeked into evolution's lab," and it's just these differences that could provide a new understanding of those diseases as researchers pursue their quest for prevention and treatment in new directions.

What will creationists (and others who feel the need to regard humans as "special") do when major medical breakthroughs in human health come to us from our cousins?

Enjoy.

ps -- I'm thinking {Human Origins} ...

This message has been edited by RAZD, 09*01*2005 10:01 AM

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