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Break_Fancy t1_iy966lk wrote

Not nearly enough, is what it lets us do!

Seuwencing the whole thing means we can read every letter present in the sequence, but it's still a language we don't understand fully. Also this is a book without any spaces and sometimes we struggle to figure out where they should go. On top of it all the sequence isn't the end all be all, as you can have epigenetic modifications (for more search epigenetics) which change how genes behave, or conditional activation (only works following certain criteria or vice versa).

I don't want to minimise the achievement, the human genome project was grand and we learned loads, but following that there is a 10,000 genome project and even that isn't enough!

This is only scratching the surface of what we don't know too, but enough to give an idea I hope

Edit: changed post translational to epigenetic modifications, had had a brain fart

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Ethan-Wakefield OP t1_iy9ibsq wrote

So, what did we learn from sequencing the human genome?

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sometimesgoodadvice t1_iy9wuje wrote

What we learned directly from the human genome is precisely that - the structure and sequence of the human genome. What that enabled (directly) is the ability to understand what genetic material is there that can govern all of the complicated biochemistry going on in the body.

More importantly, in sequencing a large genome like that of humans (nowhere near the largest, but pretty big compared to what was sequenced prior to that) is that we gained the technology (which has since become orders of magnitude better) to sequence more genomes. From this we can compare genomes of humans and other animals to help understand what makes our biology different (or similar) and also other humans to help understand what makes the biology of some humans different from others.

The genome was sequenced only about 20 years ago, but pretty much any medical advancement happening today uses that knowledge of an accurate genomic sequence somewhere in development.

The best analogy may be the invention of a transistor. At the time of the invention, 75 years ago, the basic understanding of electronics was there, and it performed a function that was not too dissimilar from vacuum tubes that existed already. However, the use of the transistor, combined with other inventions such as integrated circuits, photolithography, and many many more ended up revolutionizing the approach to electronics and the speed of their development. In this sense, having an accurate genetic sequence and being able to sequence human cells, combined with other developments has revolutionized our approach to molecular biology and medicine and is a very important building block. Hence why it's regarded as a big achievement.

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CrateDane t1_iyehk8q wrote

> On top of it all the sequence isn't the end all be all, as you can have post-translational modifications (for more search epigenetics) which change how genes behave

What.

Post-translational modifications happen to proteins after they have been translated. It has no direct link to epigenetics.

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