Page 172 - If Darwin Had Known about DNA

Harun Yahya

170

The gene mapping technique employed in the project is to clarify
where genes are located in the chromosomes, thus revealing the anato-
my of a person's genome. With the mapping of the relative positions of

a great many genes and other genetic markers along a chromosome, it
is possible to produce a whole genome map. The mathematical analy-
sis of the genome and a series of complex statistical analyses are em-
ployed to determine the location of genes on chromosomes, needed for
us to understand the basic functions of the human body. One of the im-
portant objectives of the Human Genome Project is therefore the deter-
mination of the bases and causes of genetic diseases. It is hoped that
with the data obtained from the project, an estimated 4,000 inherited
diseases can be identified, and in the near future, therapy will be pos-
sible by means of the production of special drugs aimed at high-risk ge-
netic diseases.

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It is very easy to misinterpret the enormous size of the human ge-
nome. The reason why human beings have 25 times more DNA than a
fly is not because human beings are larger and more complex. There is
no correlation in biological terms between the amount of genetic infor-
mation and complexity. The single-celled organism Paramecium cauda-
tum, for instance, has 8.6 billion nucleotides, which is more than twice
as many as the human genome. With 670 billion nucleotides, the single-
celled Amoeba dubia possesses the broadest known amount of genetic
information. 119
Scientists working on the Human Genome Project state that they
are still only beginning to understand the functions of genes and the re-
lationships among them, because the emerging results were by no
means what they had expected. For example, even a mouse or a stalk
of wheat has longer DNA than human beings.