Commonality of the Human Genome & Ethnicity...
A 2002 study of 4,000 Human
alleles found 1/2 of them present in all
major geographical regions of Earth
commonly used to define races.
(America, Oceania, Africa,
Central.South Asia, East Asia, Middle East, & Europe).
Only 7% (some 280) of these
alleles are specific to one geographical region
with only 1% (some 40) of the people in
a region having "a region specific allele".
All of which may undermines the
Human idea of ethnicity and the probable fallacy
of the Ancestry and 23andMe genome kits
that are so popular today.
Current estimates have Humans
sharing
99.9% of their DNA
making ethnicity a
Human social construct and not a
biologically based fact.
The common chimpanzee (Pan
troglodytes) is our closet relative with the genomes
being 99.5% identical (a difference of
just 15 million out of 3 billion nucleotides - 0.005%).
Some rapidly evolving evolving gene sequence that do help make
us Human:
a. HAR1 gene - a
regulatory RNA in the cerebral cortex differs by 18 nucleotides*
b. HAR1 gene -
promoted gene action in wrist & thumb dexterity, that chimps
don't have.
c. FOXP2 gene - favors high speed
facial movements needed for Human speech.
d. ASPM gene - favors
increased brain size.
e.
AMY1
- encodes for salivary amylase to digest starch.
f. LCT gene
- codes for lactase. only infants can process
lactose, yet some 9K years ago
Europeans & African acquired the LCT
allowing adults to digest lactose (milk).
