The Human Genome

The human genome is the total mass of genes and other hereditary information of a structural unit with potential capacity for autonomy in the performance related to heredity, diversity and determination of character. Humans and apes evolved from a common ancestor that most likely had 48 chromosomes. Current apes of the family Pongidae have 48 chromosomes, while humans have only 46 chromosomes, human chromosome 2 resulting from the merger of two chromosomes about 10-15 million years ago. Almost all our cells such as muscle ones that make us smile, brain cells where humor and all things around us are perceived and our eye cells which capture optical information and transmit it to the brain contain a complete set of our genes, the genome. Related to genome is genomics from genetics field, the discipline that studies the genomes of all organisms determining the DNA sequence and genome mapping.

If we could travel inside our body, into a cell, we will see the 23 pairs of chromosomes, all packed into a nucleus. Each chromosome contains a long spiral of DNA like a ladder. If the DNA from all chromosomes of a cell would be developed and put together we would get a set of atoms whose length would reach almost two meters. The double helix of DNA contains four types of building blocks labeled as A, T, C and G. An A is always going with a T and C with G. The DNA encodes the information needed to make every part of our body, with only four letters. Each of our hundred human genes is encoded to build only one part of our body.

Each individual’s genome changes over lifetime under the effect of environmental factors or diet related factors, which explains the emergence of serious diseases like cancer with aging, according to a study in USA. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, United States, have found that the DNA epigenetic indicators change during an individual's life, and the magnitude of these changes is similar to all the members of the same family. Epigenetics include the studies of the mechanisms that allow a cell to maintain the genome’s integrity