The number of genes is far less than needed to support the extravagant claims throughout the past decade that individual genes not only determine how our bodies are constructed, what diseases we suffer from, but also our patterns of behaviour, our intellectual ability, sexual preference and criminality. Forty percent of the genes are previously unknown. 113 genes have been transferred into the human genome from bacteria. The complete sequence is still riddled with gaps. One of the most common transposable element, Alu, tends to cluster where there are genes.
Chromosomes vary widely in the number of genes they contain.
Most mutations occur in males. There are more than four million genetic differences between humans found so far. We simply do not have enough genes for this idea of biological determinism to be right, said Venter, The wonderful diversity of the human species is not hard-wired in our genetic code. Our environments are critical. Many of us have been saying the same decades before the idea for the human genome project had ever been conceived of.