Human Genome the Torch of Life:-
Human Genome the torch of life:-
Genomes carry the torch of life from one generation to the next for every organism on the earth each genome is a script written in a code. Comprising the four letters. A (adenine), T(thymine),G(guanine)and C(cytosine).Genome may be defined as the complete genetic information carried by a individual. Although biologists have been studying the genomes of numerous organism for decades, there have been an enormous increase in the pace of genome research sine last ten years. The complete sequence of the genome of several life form is today available as the new breed of computer savvy molecular biologists is haking through the thickets of the DNA code.
Today genome sequencing is a billion dollar world wide enterprise. The generation of terabytes of genome data is indeed major scientific breakthrough. An instable urge to know all the genes encoded in the human DNA was central to the initiation of an international effort in 1985 the human genome project (HGP). This project was officially initiated in 1990 in the US under the direction of the Nation institutes of health and the US department of energy with a 15 years, $3 billion plan for completing the human genome sequence. The HGP is publicly funded consortium that includes large sequencing centers in the US, as well as the Sanger Center in the England and laboratories in Japan, France, Germany and China. Additional participants subsequently joined the effort like Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Israel, Italy, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden and Spain. The European Union is also taking part in this project. So it has become a global issue.
Working together for more than a decade, over 1100 scientists from all over the world have crafted a map of 3 billion. DNA base pairs that make up the human genome. The beauty of this project is that it has united several developed as well as developing countries to sequence not only the human genome but also undertake the genome sequencing of many planets, animals, bacteria and viruses. Other developing countries including India are directly or indirectly participating through studies of molecular biology techniques for research and studies of region specific organisms.
Genes comprise only a tiny fraction of the human DNA, but they represent the major biological function of the genome. Often the information content within a gene of a higher organism is not continuous. In fact, different parts of a gene called ‘exons’ are joined together after emoving the unwanted sequence (introns)to make a continuous stretch of information in the form of a messager RNA molecule, which, in turn, is translated into a protein. Therefore, the most challenging feature in human genome sequencing is gene identification. Which scientists were earlier of the opinion that there may be more than 100,000 genes, the number actually may be only about 30,000-35,000 which is only about twice as many as in worm or fly. The human genome has only a few hundred genes that are not there in the genomes of mice, rats and dogs. This means that mankind now requires an insight into the mystery as to how human beings who are so complex, can manage with only a relatively modest number of additional genes than worms and files.
