A new analysis suggested that the DNA of any two people is about 99.5 percent to just 99 percent alike, instead of what previous studies have indicated 99.9 percent identical, media reports quoting PLoS Biology as saying Tuesday.
The study was based on the analysis of the entire genetic map of J. Craig Venter, an author of the study and president of the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md.
The new work marks the first time a scientific journal has presented the entire DNA makeup, or human genome, of an individual.
Everybody inherits two sets of DNA, one from each parent. Venter's paper compared the DNA he inherited from his mother with the DNA from his father.
The order of building blocks along a strand of DNA encodes genetic information, somewhat like the way a sequence of letters creates a sentence.
The studies produce the lower figure because they uncovered chunks of DNA that differ among people, whereas previous studies focused on differences in individual building blocks.
The 99 percent figure is close to what scientists have often estimated for the similarity between humans and chimps.
But the human-chimp similarity drops to more like 95 percent when the more recently discovered kinds of DNA variation are considered, Venter said.
Source:Xinhua/agencies
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