Biotechnology - Yu.O. Sazykin 2006

General Biotechnology
Genomics and Proteomics
Human Genome - Human Genome Project

Complete Human Genome sequencing (several billion nucleotide pairs and identification of genes across all forty-eight Chromosomes) is a qualitatively more challenging task than sequencing the genomes of prokaryotes and lower eukaryotes. In the early 1990s, the international Human Genome Project was launched with the goal of solving this major fundamental problem through the joint efforts and resources of several nations, including Russia. In 2003, the project was successfully completed, with scientists describing all 25,000 genes present in the chromosomes of every Cell. Over this period, DNA Databases were established using Gene samples from tens of thousands of individuals.

Let us briefly Touch upon some preliminary Conclusions in the most general terms. While it was previously asserted that The Human Genome contained around one hundred thousand genes, current estimates point to a significantly smaller number. Furthermore, numerous non-coding sequences have been discovered within human genomic DNA. Initially, these were provisionally termed "junk DNA," implying "excess waste accumulated over the course genome evolution." However, it has now been established that non-coding sequences in the human genome are far from random. Fascinating facts have come to light in recent years through the comparison of human and great ape genomes. Based on the Darwinian paradigm that "man evolved from apes," it was expected that these differences would be quite substantial, that our common ancestor would be evolutionary distant, and that divergence occurred in the distant past.

Yet this similarity turned out to be remarkably close, raising even more mysteries. Among them is the persistent presence of sequences of viral origin within the human genome (a sort of "saturation" of the modern human genome with Viral DNA molecules).

Differences between the genomes of various ethnic groups were also revealed. This is a very sensitive issue, especially given the tragic pages of recent human history. Nevertheless, turning a blind eye to objective facts simply due to the imperfections of human society would be unwise—particularly since understanding our own genome will provide humanity in the new millennium with the foundations for self-improvement, unclouded by either religious dogma or destructive revolutionary demagoguery.