Genome, human

The complete set of human genetic material. The human genome consists of 23 chromosomes, which, together, contain about 30,000 genes. All body cells contain 2 sets of the 23 chromosomes, one set inherited from the father and the other from the mother. An international research programme, the Human Genome Project, was launched in 1990 with the aim of identifying all the human genes. The first rough draft of the project was published in 2000.

 

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