Tuesday, 2 October 2007

genetics - How many people's DNA were involved in the compilation of the reference human genome?

tl;dr: In the Human Genome Project, they used the DNA of four people (though one male provided >70% of DNA. The Celera genome was compiled from five people.




In the [...] Human Genome Project (HGP), [...] scientists used white
blood cells from the blood of two male and two female donors (randomly
selected from 20 of each) -- each donor yielding a separate DNA
library. One of these libraries (RP11 [anonymous donor from Buffalo,
NY]) was used considerably more than others, due to quality
considerations.



[...]



In the Celera Genomics private-sector project, DNA from five different
individuals were used for sequencing. The lead scientist of Celera
Genomics at that time, Craig Venter, later acknowledged (in a public
letter to the journal Science) that his DNA was one of 21 samples in
the pool, five of which were selected for use.



On September 4, 2007, a team led by Craig Venter published his
complete DNA sequence,[21] unveiling the six-billion-nucleotide genome
of a single individual for the first time.)




Source: Wikipedia

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