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The complete sequence of a human Y chromosome

nature.com

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Re: The complete sequence of a human Y chromosome

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"if we transfer the DNA to an advanced alien civilization - would they be able to make a human." I'm really surprised that in all these responses to your question no one's mentioned the womb or the mother, who (at least with current technology) is still necessary for making a human. That's not to mention the necessity of the egg. We're not just DNA.

Instructions on how to make a womb and an "egg" are contained within the human DNA.

It is known that that is not true, due to the distinct genetic code of mitochondria and known epigenetic influences of mothers on their children in utero.

You could say “well that's the last 10% of the details, maybe 90% is in the DNA,” but I think I would be suspicious that it's that high, because one of the things we know about humans is that we are born with all of the ova that we will ever have, rather than deferring the process until puberty. I should think that if it could be deferred it would have been, “you will spend the energy to make these 15 years before you need to for no real reason” seems very unlike evolution whereas “my body is going to teach you how to make these eggs, just the same as my mother's body taught me,” sounds quite evolutionarily reasonable.

Re: The complete sequence of a human Y chromosome

#152

So I have my whole genome sequenced by Nebula. What do I have to do to match it up?

Can someone explain how "I have my whole genome sequenced by Nebula" relates to the news just now that "The human Y chromosome has been completely sequenced"?

How can someone have their whole (!) genome sequenced already when so far we weren't able to fully sequence the Y chromosome. And this person seems to have a Y chromosome.

Re: The complete sequence of a human Y chromosome

#155
post #154

Dumb question: what does it mean to sequence "the" X? I presume our DNA are not identical. So do they sequence a particular person's Y chromosome? Who's? How similar are two Y chromosomes from different persons?

Very similar. The difference between you and a chimp is only 4%, the largest difference between two individual humans is about a tenth of that.

The person they picked is pseudonymously HG002, who is an Ashkenazi man who took part in the project and consented to commercial distribution of his genome.

Re: The complete sequence of a human Y chromosome

#156
post #5

For those who don't recall: Back in the Dark Ages, there was a race to decode the human genome. The leading competitiors (wealthiest) were Celera Genomics and the Human Genome Project. After some time, Celera (headed by Craig Venter), announced they had done the deed. However, what Celera had actually done was used what they called a "shotgun method", which meant they took small samples here and there, then built a m…

TIL that. I was 100% sure the DNA was completely sequenced. Even have a friend with a sequencing company. It is incredible how ignorant one can be. Thank you 10g1k and HN.

Re: The complete sequence of a human Y chromosome

#157
post #5

For those who don't recall: Back in the Dark Ages, there was a race to decode the human genome. The leading competitiors (wealthiest) were Celera Genomics and the Human Genome Project. After some time, Celera (headed by Craig Venter), announced they had done the deed. However, what Celera had actually done was used what they called a "shotgun method", which meant they took small samples here and there, then built a m…

Anybody familiar with news sources which questioned Celera accomplishment before they admitted how they did it?

Re: The complete sequence of a human Y chromosome

#158
1) What we had was not complete because sequencing happened for (relatively) small chunks. Due to overlap the sequence could be reconstructed, but not for areas with a lot of repeats.

2) This incomplete sequence has nevertheless been VERY useful, because these repeats mostly are outside of protein encoding regions ('genes').

3) 'The' human genome is of course non existent because you and I have a different one. What is meant is that this has been done for a 'bunch' of individual humans.

4) Because we're much more alike than we are different in our genome, this is still very informative.

Re: The complete sequence of a human Y chromosome

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Single payer healthcare here (UK) is still subject to privacy controls in a way which would make it very difficult to do that. (Also our health system's IT is a hellscape, but one reason for that is that people would literally rather not have a working system at all, than one with less than impeccable privacy controls. Personally I'd gladly sacrifice a fair bit of medical privacy in return for giving scientists great…

I trust the scientists, the problem isn't them. Look at the whole abortion data scandal in the U.S.

The problem there is the US' insane theocrat-conservatives (or just misogynist assholes hiding behind a thin veneer of religious justification, as the case may be).

I'm not saying a health IT system should have no privacy controls either. But the requirements for such controls need to be balanced against having a system that actually works, and that means having some people who actually understand the tech, and the workings of hospitals, having a role in requirements conversations. Instead it was dominated by MPs, "patient advocacy" groups and privacy campaigners, none of whom know or care anything about how to build a workable system.

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