The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

["DUCLAYAN, GINA" <GDUCLAYAN AT popcouncil.org>]

Humans, chimps more different than thought: study
Tuesday, September 24, 2002 Posted: 10:05 AM EDT (1405 GMT)
  
The genetic similarity between chimpanzees and humans is not as close as
originally thought, according to a new study  
 
WASHINGTON (AP) -- There are more differences between a chimpanzee and a
human being than once believed, according to a new genetic study. 

Biologists have long held that the genes of chimps and humans are about 98.5
percent identical. 

But Roy Britten, a biologist at the California Institute of Technology, said
in a study published this week that a new way of comparing the genes shows
that the human and chimp genetic similarity is only about 95 percent. 

Britten based this on a computer program that compared 780,000 of the 3
billion base pairs in the human DNA helix with those of the chimp. He found
more mismatches than earlier researchers had, and concluded that at least
3.9 percent of the DNA bases were different. 

This led him to conclude that there is a fundamental genetic difference
between the species of about 5 percent. 

Britten said the new study, appearing this week in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, should help biologists figure out how species
branched out from each other over the course of evolution. 

"A large number of these 5 percent of variations are relatively
unimportant," he said in a statement. The next step is to compare how the
genes are regulated in the two species and find out where all the genetic
differences are located in the DNA, he said. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.