Parimutuel gene pool?

[mycroftt]

Wednesday, October 20, 2004


NEW YORK (AP) -- How many genes does it take to make a human? Only about the same number it takes for a small flowering plant or a tiny worm, says a new estimate that's sharply reduced from just three years ago.

"We (humans) don't look very impressive in the competition," said Dr. Francis Collins, co-author of the new analysis by the international group that decoded the human genome.

The new estimate is 20,000 to 25,000 genes, a drop from the 30,000 to 40,000 the same group of scientists published in 2001.

By comparison, the tiny roundworm C. elegans, a favorite research subject, has around 19,500 genes. A small flowering plant in the mustard family, Arabidopsis, has about 27,000.

But the complexity of the human body arises from more than just its genetic parts list, experts said.

"It's not just the number of genes that matters," said another co-author, Eric Lander of the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "It really is how nature uses these genes."

Scientists have long speculated about how many genes people have. Some have put it at 100,000 or more, and the genome project's initial figure fell in the low end of estimates when it was announced.

In a betting pool among scientists that ran from 2000 to 2003, the average guess before the consortium published its estimate in 2001 was about 66,000 genes. Afterward, the average dropped to about 44,000.

Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, put his money on about 48,000 genes when the contest began. That's about twice the new estimate.

"Oh well," he said this week, "live and learn."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/10/20/how.many.genes.ap/index.html

Kind of an off-beat article about the eggheads in the human genome research labs. I got a kick out of Collins' "Oh well" attitude.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

That's what science is all about. Believing is meaningless until the facts are in. Speculation is only useful as a way to focus research on what might matter.

But that original guess sure took a couple of big hits in a hurry!

 

[fisherk]

I work in Fuel Cell Research, and it's amazings how things work out! We've come up with a couple of ideas that we didn't even think were possible, but everyday there's new hurdles to overcome. All we can do is keep plugging away! That's the way Research works!!

Ken