What's the mystery behind DNA?

Question

Why Don't all Humans look a like?

We are all animals divided into two groups Beast & Human.

Why are the variations so drastic in Humans and slight in Beast,

Think about it, we all have 2 eyes 1 nose 2 ears and a mouth yet thousands of variations. Every other person may look a like and be completely unrelated, the rest of us are completly different but when it comes to beast all beast of their type look a like with the acception of a few spots or strips if it were not for scent they wouldn't know whose who either.

Can anyone expalin with an answer not a comment.

Answer 1

I think its because the human dna has a more complex division so that there can be more varieties from the same building blocks. - not terribly scientific tho - sorry. but im pretty sure that its right.

Answer 2

> What's the mystery behind DNA?
The mystery is that there are highly conserved non-coding sequences of DNA. We don't know why.

> Why Don't all Humans look alike?
Slightly differing alleles, for the genes that make us grow and develop (and a few others -- notably melanin production).

> Why are all animals divided into two groups Beast & Human.
They're not. We're very much like our chimp cousins. It's probably just human-centric thinking that doesn't place chimps in the genus Homo along with us.

> Why are the variations so drastic in Humans and slight in Beast,
Whoa there. Animals have plenty of variations and variants. If you're not familiar with the other species, you may not know what to look for.

Answer 3

Genes can be loosely viewed as the organism's "cookbook";
A strand of DNA contains genes, areas that regulate genes, and areas that either have no function, or a function we do not (yet) know;
DNA is organized as two complementary strands, head-to-toe, with bonds between them that can be "unzipped" like a zipper, separating the strands;
DNA is encoded with four interchangeable "building blocks", called "bases", which can be abbreviated A, T, C, and G; each base "pairs up" with only one other base: A+T, T+A, C+G and G+C; that is, an "A" on one strand of double-stranded DNA will "mate" properly only with a "T" on the other, complementary strand;
The order does matter: A+T is not the same as T+A, just as C+G is not the same as G+C;
However, since there are just four possible combinations, naming only one base on the conventionally chosen side of the strand is enough to describe the sequence;
The order of the bases along the length of the DNA is what it's all about, the sequence itself is the description for genes;
Replication is performed by splitting (unzipping) the double strand down the middle via relatively trivial chemical reactions, and recreating the "other half" of each new single strand by drowning each half in a "soup" made of the four bases. Since each of the "bases" can only combine with one other base, the base on the old strand dictates which base will be on the new strand. This way, each split half of the strand plus the bases it collects from the soup will ideally end up as a complete replica of the original, unless a mutation occurs;
Mutations are simply chemical imperfections in this process: a base is accidentally skipped, inserted, or incorrectly copied, or the chain is trimmed, or added to; all other basic mutations can be described as combinations of these accidental "operations".

Answer 4

Interesting question...Here is my best educated guess...
I think it is part scientific and part psychological. First, the scientific. Things that reproduce sexually have a higher genetic variability than organisms that reproduce asexually. But that doesn't really help because all those other mammals you refer to also reproduce sexually. Another scientific possibility: Maybe Homo sapiens was well on the way to speciation (becoming separate species) when we invented world travel? Even today, we can get a good idea of a person's ethnicity based on their genetics. (Just look at the rate of diabetes among Scandinavians or sickle cell anemia among Africans.) Plus all that genetic diversity has contributed to our success as a species.
Now the psychological: I think we are all a bit biased. We think our physical traits are so important that they define who we are. So when we see someone who in reality is only slightly different, all we can see is the differences. Also we all have the tendency to lump groups together. As a white person, I recall as a child hearing that all black people look alike. That is certainly NOT true. But if you don't have a lot of contact with a group, you don't see the individual. Another example: Scientists working with a certain species can tell all the individuals apart but to me they all look like dolphins. I guess it comes down to how familiar you are with them...
Hope this helps...sorry so long!

Answer 5

We differ from other primates by as little as 1% of our DNA, that is a lot! Our DNA contains many more alleles (alternate forms of the same gene) for the characteristics you mention, eyes, nose ears and mouth than other animals. In addition, these characteristics are produced in a complex manner because many are affected by pleitrophic genes and epistatis, meaning there is an interaction with other genes. For instance, eye color, there is not just blue, green or brown alleles but many more different alleles that interact in a complex manner to produce a variety of eye color. However, as you know, most animals only have brownish eye color.

Many of these alternate alleles may have been created by mutations that were not detrimental and so were passed down in the population if they did not affect us in an adverse way.

Finally, you are right that animals recognize each other best by scent and their olfactory is much much more developed than ours-so genetically they are more well-endowed this way. Whereas we recognize each other much better by site and genetically are more diverse visually.

Answer 6

There is not really a mystery behind DNA. DNA or ..wait for it....
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a molecule that contains all the instructions for making a particular form of life. Within cells, DNA is grouped into structures called chromosomes and the set of chromosomes within a cell make up a genome. These chromosomes handed across whenever a cell divides through mytosis.
DNA is comprised of many segments of RNA (Ribonucleic acid) and these form naturally from protien strings called Amino Acids.
The Mystery becomes clear when you find out that Amino Acids form compleatly naturaly from inanimate chemicals in any habitable enviroment (such as earth)

Answer 7

We are animals, just the same as any other animal.

There's no more difference between any two humans than there is between any two of another species. In fact most species show much greater diversity - take the case of dogs, look at a tiny chihuahua and a huge Great Dane and tell me that they look alike.

The reason you think that animals all look alike and humans all look different is that you yourself are a human. You've learned to see all the tiny differences that we have, and use them unconsciously. You haven't needed to learn the same things with other animals - but someone who works with animals all day could easily tell them apart.

Answer 8

We do look alike morphologically, (ie 2 eyes, 2 lungs etc), however genetically we are different due to the large amount of different genes coding for the same characteristic (alleles).

Animals are usually adapted to certain habitats and conditions, hence the selection pressures for variation are greatly increased.

For example, rabbits live in snow and woodland conditions, snow rabbits have white fur as the selection pressure was fur colour for them to blend into surroundings. All the other colour furs genes were wiped because those rabbits were killed by predators, and could not pass on their genetic information.

The same is with wood rabbits, with the result being all are brown fur colour. Hence when we study them after a length of time all the rabbits in that habitat will be more or less alike.

Humans on the other hand, have adapted to a range of habitats. Take eye colour for example. Blue eyes are commonly a European descent trait, stemmed from humans adapting to colder darker regions. Brown eyes are more of African of Asian descent, adapting to hotter brighter regions.

Currently variation is seen as large (blue, brown, green, greyetc), but in say another million years time, just like the rabbits, most humans on Earth will have similar features (i.e brown eyes) because that particular allele or gene is dominant

Ultimately, it is because humans have evolved and adapted to the present stage on a relatively small time scale. Other animals have evolved to the current state for millions upon millions of years and hence show limited variation dependent on their habitat.

Barring mutations to produce new dominant genes and alleles eventually all humans will look the same as the gene pool is limited

Answer 9

no we are not divided into two species, unless you spent all youre time in religious class and none in science. Humans are as diverse as all other animals. All cats look differnet, cows have different number of spots.... cumon - why dont you think about it bewfore asking.

But I suppose are differences are more noticable, its probably because we are the most complicated beings on earth as we have a LOT of DNA. I think we have something like 44 chromosomes, where an onion has 4. .......................infact even onions look different.

Answer 10

Hi

Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA is a nucleic acid molecule that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all living organisms. The main role of DNA is the long-term storage of information and it is often compared to a set of blueprints, since DNA contains the instructions needed to construct other components of cells, such as proteins and RNA molecules. The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in regulating the use of this genetic information.

Chemically, DNA is a long polymer of simple units called nucleotides, with a backbone made of sugars and phosphate atoms joined by ester bonds. Attached to each sugar is one of four types of molecules called bases. It is the sequence of these four bases along the backbone that encodes information. This information is read using the genetic code, which specifies the sequence of the amino acids within proteins. The code is read by copying stretches of DNA into the related nucleic acid RNA, in a process called transcription. Most of these RNA molecules are used to synthesize proteins, but others are used directly in structures such as ribosomes and spliceosomes.

Within cells, DNA is organized into structures called chromosomes and the set of chromosomes within a cell make up a genome. These chromosomes are duplicated before cells divide, in a process called DNA replication. Eukaryotic organisms such as animals, plants, and fungi store their DNA inside the cell nucleus, while in prokaryotes such as bacteria it is found in the cell's cytoplasm. Within the chromosomes, chromatin proteins such as histones compact and organize DNA, which helps control its interactions with other proteins and thereby control which genes are transcribed.