Ask A Scientist Molecular Biology Archive

name         Cecilia G.
status       other
age          60s

Question -   What percentage of dog genes are shared with humans?
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Dear Cecilia:

According to the following article describing the AKC Canine Health
Foundation and Ralston Purina Co. Fund Collaborative Gene Map Project,
"the homology between the human and canine genome is over 85 percent.":

http://www.akc.org/love/dah/hn/genemap.cfm

Please bear in mind, however, that the Dog Genome Project is still in its
early phases, as summarized by its web site from UC-Berkeley:

http://mendel.berkeley.edu/dog.html

More importantly, "homology" simply refers to the overall DNA sequence
similarity.  The actual "percentage of dog genes...shared with humans" is
much more difficult to determine, although it's certainly in the realm of
possibility within the near future, once mapping of both genomes has been
completed.  At the present time, I seriously doubt if this question could
even be answered accurately for humans compared to mice, which have been
much more extensively studied.  However, based on their comparative
evolutionary relatedness, I would guess that they are probably likely to
share greater than 90% of their genes.

Thanks for the good question,


Jeff Buzby, Ph.D.
Children's Hosp. of Orange Cnty.
NEWTON AAS
Div. of Educational Programs
Argonne National Laboratory
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