Re: Orangs as Closest

Ludvig M€rtberg (lugmog95@student.umu.se)
Thu, 08 Aug 1996 21:19:50 GMT

On 8 Aug 1996 16:31:33 GMT, msnyder@next.com (Michael Snyder) wrote:

>According to Jared Diamond, Orangs and Humans share a little over
>96 percent of their genes (differing in just under 4 percent). The
>genetic difference between Humans and Gorillas is about 2.3 percent
>(making them genetically closer to us than Orangs), and the genetic
>difference between Humans and Chimps is about 1.6 percent (making
>them our closest living relatives).

The percentage values are reached by DNA-DNA hybs and sequence
similarity. This is not the same as sharing genes or "genetic
difference". I have no idea of how to measure genetic difference
between organisms and get a percentage value. What about raw sequence
data? Even here I know of no method to get percentage values in
comparisons.

You are all welcome to define genetic closeness or difference and also
the same for DNA sequences.