What is the longest match between the human and chimpanzee genomes?

Biblical Genetics

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Human-chimpanzee similarity is a hotly-debated topic in the evolution-creation wars. Are we 98, 95, 90, or 85% similar? One way to get at the question is to ask what is the longest stretch of DNA that is shared between the two species. This is a very difficult question to answer! But, unperturbed, Dr Rob set out to answer it. Will our fearless hero be able to pull it off? Spoiler alert: not quite, but the path of discovery is still very interesting.

• LastZ github.com/lastz/lastz
• LastZ chaining github.com/hillerlab/make_lastz_chains
• Mummer4 mummer4.github.io/
• Blast blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi
• Telomere-to-Telomere Consortium primate projects github.com/marbl/Primates
• Python python.org/

• Standard Bases:

  • A: Adenine
  • C: Cytosine
  • G: Guanine
  • T: Thymine (in DNA)
  • U: Uracil (in RNA)

  Ambiguous Bases (IUPAC Codes):

  These codes are used when there is ambiguity in the nucleotide present at a particular position:

  • R: A or G (puRine)
  • Y: C or T (pYrimidine)
  • S: G or C
  • W: A or T (Weak)
  • K: G or T (Keto)
  • M: A or C (aMino)
  • B: C, G, or T (not A) (B comes after A)
  • D: A, G, or T (not C) (D comes after C)
  • H: A, C, or T (not G) (H comes after G)
  • V: A, C, or G (not T) (V comes after U; U is replaced with T in DNA)
  • N: Any base (A, C, G, T) (N for any nucleotide)
• Silver Comet Trail silvercometga.com/