Freethought & Rationalism Archive

HumanisTim · 08-23-2002, 04:28 PM

I think I heard once. That humans and chimps are more related. Then rats are to mice. Is this true. If so could I have more information. Thanks a bunch.

Mageth · 08-23-2002, 04:45 PM

You could start at <a href="http://iidb.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=58&t=001238&p=" target="_blank">this recent thread</a>, that has quite a bit of content on human/chimp/other primate gene comparisons.

Coragyps · 08-23-2002, 07:15 PM

A recent article (Enard, et al., "Intra- and Interspecific Variation in Primate Gene Expression Patterns," Science, 296, 340-343) gives the following numbers, with references, for "extent of divergence" in "silent" coding differences over about 12,000 genes: Chimps differ by 1.08% from humans, and orangutans by 2.98%. Compare this with three species of mice (no rats here - all the same genus): Mus musculus, Mus spretus, and Mus caroli. The first two differ by 2.5%, and the first and third by 4.5%.
This suggests that we are more closely related to orangutans than some mice are to each other - I'm not a biology/genetics guy, so I can't really judge whether the measurement the paper used is strictly applicable to overall "relatedness", but 12,000 genes seems a pretty fair sampling to me. Rufus? Scigirl? Morpho? Any clarifications?

08-23-2002, 04:28 PM	#1
HumanisTim Regular Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Reading,PA Posts: 233	Question about genes I think I heard once. That humans and chimps are more related. Then rats are to mice. Is this true. If so could I have more information. Thanks a bunch.

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08-23-2002, 04:45 PM	#2
Mageth Contributor Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Deep in the heart of mother-lovin' Texas Posts: 29,689	You could start at <a href="http://iidb.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=58&t=001238&p=" target="_blank">this recent thread</a>, that has quite a bit of content on human/chimp/other primate gene comparisons.

08-23-2002, 07:15 PM	#3
Coragyps Veteran Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Snyder,Texas,USA Posts: 4,411	A recent article (Enard, et al., "Intra- and Interspecific Variation in Primate Gene Expression Patterns," Science, 296, 340-343) gives the following numbers, with references, for "extent of divergence" in "silent" coding differences over about 12,000 genes: Chimps differ by 1.08% from humans, and orangutans by 2.98%. Compare this with three species of mice (no rats here - all the same genus): Mus musculus, Mus spretus, and Mus caroli. The first two differ by 2.5%, and the first and third by 4.5%. This suggests that we are more closely related to orangutans than some mice are to each other - I'm not a biology/genetics guy, so I can't really judge whether the measurement the paper used is strictly applicable to overall "relatedness", but 12,000 genes seems a pretty fair sampling to me. Rufus? Scigirl? Morpho? Any clarifications?

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