Ask a Geneticist

While reading these websites, I’ve discovered and learned a lot of interesting facts. For instance: Chimps and humans have a different number of chromosomes, but because they are so similar, they probably have about the same number of genes. A close look at a chimp and human’s chromosomes shows that only one of the human chromosomes is really made up of two of the chimp chromosomes; or vice versa. There often isn’t a relationship between the number of chromosomes and the number of genes. For example, humans have 46, goldfish have 94, and toucan have 106! Geneticists think that the difference between humans and chimps is that the sections of the genome don’t code for genes. These sections direct the activity of the genes in the genome. I’ve also learned that since bacteria makes new bacteria asexually, this means that when they make new bacteria, they just split in two with each half getting a copy of the same DNA. In fact, there is on average 6 million differences between two people’s DNA. We don’t have one long strand of DNA because we need more to increase genetic diversity. Anyway, proteins are the workers in the cell. Almost anything that need doing is done by proteins. They carry our oxygen, help us see, and even think! Genes are organized into groups based on what the genes do for a living. For example, all the genes need to digest lactose, the sugar found in milk, are grouped together on the chromosome. When there is lactose around, all the genes can get used together. Moving on to chromosomes, a chromosome is a package containing a chunk of a genome – that is, it contains some of an organism’s genes. The important word here is “package”: chromosomes help a cell to keep a large amount of genetic information neat, organized, and compact. Lastly, what makes one chromosome different from another is through similar basic appearance. Different chromosomes vary slightly in size and shape. In addition, when chromosomes are stained with fluorescent dyes they develop distinctive patterns of bright dark bands. These are all the interesting facts I discovered and learned while reading these websites.