I have a question about the genetic
similarities between the major primate species
(orangutans, chimpanzees, gorillas, gibbons, and
bonobos) and humans. A lot of times one hears
about how humans and chimps are the closest to
each other genetically, differing in their
genetic makeup by only a few percent. I´m
wondering though, how close genetically are the
great apes to each other?
For example, how close are chimps to
gorillas, gibbons, or bonobos? Or gorillas to
orangutans, etc.? Do you guys know of any
references comparing the genetic codes of all of
the great apes to humans (from which I could
deduce how similar the great apes are from
themselves)? Or perhaps a direct comparison of
primate genetic codes to each other? I´m mostly
interested in the overall percentage difference
between each species, but I´d love to look at
any additional information as well such as where
their genetic codes differ with regard to each
other.
Any help or references to resources on the
subject would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Best,
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Answer 1:
The short answer is that the bonobos and
other chimps are more closely related to each
other than they are to us. We are more similar
to chimps and bonobos than we are to gorillas or
than gorillas are related to chimps and
bonobos. All of the species I just listed are
more similar to each other than they are to
orangutans. The gibbons are much more distantly
related to all of these.
Here’s an excellent article on this topic:
sciencedirect
Normally I wouldn’t send a student to an
article like this, but I have seen the
sophistication of your physics questions and
think you can handle it.
Here’s another interesting article:
click here
Keep in mind that when we say something
like, “There’s a 2% difference between chimp DNA
and human DNA,” this doesn’t provide a complete
picture of the differences. Even a small change
in regulatory genes can have an enormous
effect. For example, a particular “recipe” may
never be switched on, be switched on for much
longer, be switched on only in certain
locations, etc. There’s a great description on
how these regulatory genes work in “What Darwin
Never Knew”:
evolution.
Thanks for asking,
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