Quote:
Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek
One of the questions I asked her was "If the DNA sequence in humans is so close to that of chimpanzees, why do the two species look so different?"
|
A 2% difference in DNA may not sound like a lot but it is. I think there is a large amount of shared DNA across many different Eukaryotes, because a large number of our genes are just coding for the basics that we share (e.g. mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, nucleus, ribosomes, cell membrane, centrioles, lysozymes, proteins, enzymes, ion channels, metabolic pathways, chemical pathways, replication, transcription, translation, cytokinesis, etc). We share about half our DNA with bananas and cabbages. That sounds like a lot of shared DNA, yet we look nothing like bananas or cabbages. If a 50% is that significant to produce such a difference between humans and fruits/vegetables, then think about how big a difference a 2% is still going to make.