Hello everybody, Winding my exams i'm few hours late to submit my blog this time. As mentioned my topic is HUMAN GENOME PROJECT!!! Let us deal with few highlights of this project. The project was designed to sequence entire human genome and other microorganims like E.coli. Many of the diseases like cancer, obesity had their roots at genomic and molecular level. This was the major tending force for sequencing human genome to study various diseases. Human genome project (HGP) was initiated by Government of six countries- US, UK, France, Germany, China and Japan. The health professionals and R&D department together initiated the program in the year 1990 with an estimated amount of 3$billion and time of 15 years. Another private organization CELERA Institute also initiated the program under the head Mr. Craig Venter. The project was conducted rapidly due to the availability of high throughput and excellent computing applications. MAJOR HIGHLIGHTS OF HGP : 1. Approximately 90pc of Human Genome was sequenced and the cause for underlying genetic disorders have been depicted.2. The remaining 10pc is located at the end of chromosomes or at telomeres. 3. The human genome consisted of 3200 billion base pairs of which Gene and Gene Related sequences hold 1200 base pairs while Intergenic DNA contributed 2000 base pairs. 4. Proteins contribute 1.1-1.4 pc 5. Approximately 25% of the genome is composed of introns which appear as repeating units with no known functions. 6. Protein Coding Genes- 30000-40000 7. An average gene consists of 3000 bases. Dystrophin is the largest human gene with 2.4 million bases. 8. Chromosome 1 is the largest and contains 2968 genes while Chromosome Y is the smallest. 9. Genetic sequences that are associated with diseases like breast cancer, deafness, muscle diseases, blindness were sequenced and reported. 10. Repeated sequences constituted 50% of the genome. 11. 97% of the human genome has unknown functions 12. More than 3 million Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms have been identified. 13. Human DNA is 98% identical to Chimpanzees. 14. About 200 genes of human genome are found in bacteria too. Other interesting thing is if the entire human body DNA is placed end to end then it would reach sun and back over 600times. Don't you feel its an amazing nature's secret??? To be continued... THIS BLOG IS FREE OF PLAGIARISM. Ref: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/about.shtml accessed as on 16th October 2011.