4.6 Flashcards
HGP started in
1990
The human genome project (HGP) is the largest international collaborative
Project
Project is to find the base sequence of DNA that makes up a
Human being
Completed in
2003
HGP has given us a list of the nucleotide sequence in the DNA of one human being. However we do not know very much about what this
Means
The collection of all proteins in the body of an organism is called the
Proteome
Next task for scientists is to work out the structure and functions of the proteome that the genome codes for.
First they have to work out amino acid sequences that the DNA codes for.
Furthermore there are still a few parts of the DNA sequence that have not been
Decoded
The HGP difficult to sequence:
- part of chromosome close to centromeres (consist of millions of base pairs that are very repetitive)
- ends of centromeres (telomeres)
HGP base sequence is the combined result of analysing DNA from a small number of anonymous donors. This means that every individual human will have a
Slightly different base sequence from
This
Benefits of HGP: -detailed knowledge of human genome will hopefully lead to
- medical and biotechnological advances (predispositions)
- new treatments
- find evolutionary relationships (comparing human DNA sequences with other organisms)
Concerns of HGP:
- insurance companies or mortgage lenders may demand that their clients undergo genetic testing (adjust prices)
- used by employers to check that they do not employ people who are at high risk or developing serious health conditions
Some people think that it is useful to know whether they have a predisposition to a particular disease in later life so that they could
Reduce the risk of developing it
Others think that there is no point in telling a person they have an increased risk of developing a disease as this can
Worry them
Others concerned with the fact that just because there is a predisposition doesn’t mean that they will
Develop disease
