They say siblings share about 50% of their DNA. Yet it is also said that bananas and humans share 50-60% of their genetic material. What exactly is each claim referring to?
In: Biology
When you hear a phrase like, ” the human and the banana share 50% of their DNA” what someone means is that a human and a banana have 50% homologous genes. This means for 50% of the genes in the human you can find a gene in the banana that shares a evolutionary origin. These genes are not identical in sequence. The sequences can be as little as 30% identical and still be considered the same gene.
Siblings will get their chromosomes from their parents so the genes will be 100% identical except for the slight chance of mutation. However, which chromosome each parent gives to the child is random so on average we say each sibling share 50% of their DNA. Look up meiosis for the details on this process.
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