[muawiyah]

You're also about 85% chicken, and maybe 92% cow or pig.

All you have there is a comparison of genes. Our livestock have essentially the same package of genes that we have, and for the most part the exact same variations in the very same numbers.

Where we differ most are in the way our chromosomes are linked together ~ ours are opposite the way they are linked among the Great Apes for example. Then, there's epigenetics ~ that's where chemicals external to the genes short circuit them, or link quite disparate genes together in some novel fashion. Finally, there are places in the DNA where we have "spaces" rather than copies of genes.

The complexity of life occurs at a higher level than the genes.

Two ways to look at that ~ (1) evolution, to the degree it exists, probably doesn't work very fast when it comes to the genes ~ and may have no effect at all on them. (2) The fellow taking down the parts off the shelf used a basic mix ~ Cosmic Standard Number 1. Then he welded in some other stuff.

[allmendream]

I don't know about “opposite” - our chromosomes are almost exactly like those of the Great Apes - our chromosome #2 looks like a fusion of two Ape chromosomes - leading us to have 23 pairs instead of 24 pairs.

The same genes in chromosome #2 are lined up in the same order as in the Ape chromosomes - and there are even telomere sequences in the middle of Chromosome #2 where one would find them at the ends of the Ape chromosomes.

Epigenetics is just another way of regulating genes - it is done through methylation modifications right there on the DNA molecule - not external to it. This modification tends to wrap up a gene that is not going to be used in ‘chromatin’ where it will not be available to RNA polymerase that would express the gene.

For example there is a sequence outside the gene for the lactase enzyme used to digest the milk sugar lactose. In almost all mammals (and most humans) this sequence is epigenetically modified so that after weening from mother's milk - the gene is wrapped up in chromatin and no longer used - making them “lactose intolerant”.

This sequence is mutated in many European populations - and in some African populations that herd cattle - so that the normal epigenetic change doesn't happen and the gene for lactase is expressed throughout life.

What do you mean by “spaces” in DNA?