DNA holds the instructions for each cell in every tissue of your body for how to build the machinery and structure that makes the cells work. Some changes to DNA will change the way that a particular machine works, like how there are different kinds of drills and different kinds of screws. But many (most? This is hotly debated) of the important changes are when and where and how much of the machinery and structure proteins each cell makes. You could build many different shapes of houses with the same tools and same materials, depending on how (when and where and how much) you put them together.
DNA holds the instructions for each cell in every tissue of your body for how to build the machinery and structure that makes the cells work. Some changes to DNA will change the way that a particular machine works, like how there are different kinds of drills and different kinds of screws. But many (most? This is hotly debated) of the important changes are when and where and how much of the machinery and structure proteins each cell makes. You could build many different shapes of houses with the same tools and same materials, depending on how (when and where and how much) you put them together.
DNA holds the instructions for each cell in every tissue of your body for how to build the machinery and structure that makes the cells work. Some changes to DNA will change the way that a particular machine works, like how there are different kinds of drills and different kinds of screws. But many (most? This is hotly debated) of the important changes are when and where and how much of the machinery and structure proteins each cell makes. You could build many different shapes of houses with the same tools and same materials, depending on how (when and where and how much) you put them together.
The 1.2-2% difference has been occuring steadily over he last 14 million years when the great apes (including humans) descended from a common ancestor.
This change has occured due to mutations (errors) in DNA occuring during the production of reproductive cells (meosis). These reproductive cells (sperm and eggs) will replicate themselves to form all the cells of a living human being (mitosis). Additional mutations can occur during mitosis, although these are not typically passed down.
Mutations can be harmful, neutral or positive. Positive ones tend to result in better survival and are more likely to see the person/ape survive and reproduce. Neutral mutations also often continue to pass down.
DNA is just a very long string of repeating 4 repeating molecules. All your cells have the same DNA (generally, there are some exceptions that aren’t important here). The order and number of these 4 molecules is what determines your genetic makeup, and this is the underlying “blueprint” of your body and all its systems. So the difference is just the number and order of DNA that are different between humans and other great apes.
The 1.2-2% difference has been occuring steadily over he last 14 million years when the great apes (including humans) descended from a common ancestor.
This change has occured due to mutations (errors) in DNA occuring during the production of reproductive cells (meosis). These reproductive cells (sperm and eggs) will replicate themselves to form all the cells of a living human being (mitosis). Additional mutations can occur during mitosis, although these are not typically passed down.
Mutations can be harmful, neutral or positive. Positive ones tend to result in better survival and are more likely to see the person/ape survive and reproduce. Neutral mutations also often continue to pass down.
DNA is just a very long string of repeating 4 repeating molecules. All your cells have the same DNA (generally, there are some exceptions that aren’t important here). The order and number of these 4 molecules is what determines your genetic makeup, and this is the underlying “blueprint” of your body and all its systems. So the difference is just the number and order of DNA that are different between humans and other great apes.
The 1.2-2% difference has been occuring steadily over he last 14 million years when the great apes (including humans) descended from a common ancestor.
This change has occured due to mutations (errors) in DNA occuring during the production of reproductive cells (meosis). These reproductive cells (sperm and eggs) will replicate themselves to form all the cells of a living human being (mitosis). Additional mutations can occur during mitosis, although these are not typically passed down.
Mutations can be harmful, neutral or positive. Positive ones tend to result in better survival and are more likely to see the person/ape survive and reproduce. Neutral mutations also often continue to pass down.
DNA is just a very long string of repeating 4 repeating molecules. All your cells have the same DNA (generally, there are some exceptions that aren’t important here). The order and number of these 4 molecules is what determines your genetic makeup, and this is the underlying “blueprint” of your body and all its systems. So the difference is just the number and order of DNA that are different between humans and other great apes.
DNA replication isn’t 100% reliable, there are errors during copying. You typically have ~70 mutations from your parent’s DNA. Most will be benign or no effect (there is a lot of redundancy in DNA amino acid encoding), eg GCU, GCC, GCA, GCG all code to the same amino acid. Some mutations maybe beneficial. If there were mutations that were fatal, you wouldn’t be around to notice.
Add up 70 mutations over thousands of generations and 3 billion DNA bases and you eventually get 1-2% differences.
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