“The” human genome was always a misnomer
A new repository aims to capture the genetic diversity of humanity
The human Genome Project, which published its results 20 years ago last month, was a landmark in biology. It was also somewhat misleadingly named. After all, there is no such thing as “the” human genome. Instead, there are 8bn individual humans, each of whom share the vast majority of their DNA—but not all of it. The genome published by the Human Genome Project in 2003 was put together from a dozen anonymous blood donors in and around Buffalo, in New York state.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “47 genomes are better than one”
From the May 13th 2023 edition
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