I think I see a way of getting some sort of equation for you. You said
quote:
i saw that research which determined that the mutation rate in humans is 175 neutral mutations, 3 deleterious, and a few beneficial.
This is for a diploid genome, so 175 mutations in 6 billion bases. The chimp genome is about the same size. I'm not sure what the chimp mutation rate is, but let's assume that it is about 175 mutations per generation per diploid genome. I'm sort of going out on a limb, but lets use 15 years as the chimp generation time and 30 years for humans. Let's also use the range of 5-7 million years since the chimp lineage and the human lineage separated. A lot of assumptions, I know, but I think they are all pretty reasonable.
From this, we would expect that the difference between the chimp genome and the human genome would be within the range of the mutation rate, realizing of course that natural selection and genetic drift will eliminate some mutations.
So, for humans we get:
(low range)
5x10^6/30= 166,666 generations
166,666 x 175 mutations = about 29 million mutations
High range (skipping the write up) = about 41 million mutations
For chimps (it would be double of the human range due to the generation time):
low range = 58 million
high range = 82 million
So combined (adding together the mutations in humans and the mutations in humans) we would expect between 87 million and 123 million bases to be different. Of course, not all mutations are point mutations, but for the moment let's pretend they are since these would make the smallest difference.
What is the difference between the chimp and human genome? 1.3% different. For a diploid genome of 6 billion, a difference of 1.3% is 78 million mutations, well within the measured mutation rate even if detrimental mutations are subtracted out.
Someone may nit-pick my assumptions (or math, might want to double-check it), but I think this is a reasonable assessment. The differences between man and chimp can be favorably compared with the measured muation rate. If nothing else, it is a fun little excersize.
This message has been edited by Loudmouth, 02-08-2005 17:30 AM
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