How Many Genes Are There in Human Body?

There are approximately over 30,000 genes in the human body. In 2001 the Human Genome Project, a consortium of over 1000 scientists worldwide, finished sifting through the 3 billion bits of DNA in each human cell to map the ordering all of the human genes.


Genes structure

A gene can be defined as a region of DNA that controls a hereditary characteristic. It usually corresponds to a sequence used in the production of a specific protein or RNA.

A gene carries biological information in a form that must be copied and transmitted from each cell to all its progeny. This includes the entire functional unit: coding DNA sequences, non-coding regulatory DNA sequences, and introns.

Genes can be as short as 1000 base pairs or as long as several hundred thousand base pairs. It can even be carried by more than one chromosome.

The estimate for the number of genes in humans has decreased as our knowledge has increased. As of 2001, humans are thought to have between 30,000 and 40,000 genes.

source: www.accessexcellence.org


12 Comments

  1. Nisha Spirer April 8, 2011
  2. Gregory Despain May 10, 2011
  3. arianna June 23, 2011
    • Howmanyarethere June 23, 2011
  4. Sam June 30, 2011
  5. Naczyn July 3, 2011
  6. harsha October 26, 2011
  7. Alepveypineuy July 5, 2012
  8. Ajay kumar August 2, 2012
  9. Kokumo November 26, 2012
  10. Matheshwaran July 23, 2013
  11. Matheshwaran July 23, 2013

Reply Cancel Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.