By IANS
Toronto : Why do humans differ so much from chimpanzees despite having genes that are almost 99 percent identical?
The answer, according to researchers at the University of Toronto, lies in the different ways in which humans and chimpanzees splice genetic materials to create proteins.
Splicing is the process by which the coding regions of genes are joined to generate genetic messages that specify the production of proteins, the key element of cells.
Splicing can occur in alternative ways in the same genetic message to generate more than one type of protein.
The new findings reveal that the alternative splicing process in humans and chimpanzees differs significantly.
Findings of the research team, led by Benjamin Blencowe, have been published in the forthcoming issue of the Journal of Genes and Development.
According to Blencowe, “We found that 6-8 percent of the alternative splicing events we looked at were showing differences, which is quite significant. And those genes that showed differences in splicing are associated with a range of important processes, including susceptibility to certain diseases.
“Identifying what makes us different can be very important to understanding why certain diseases affect one species and not the other,” Blencowe added.