This new knowledge about the sequence of genes will help scientists determine how some diseases are triggered. It will also give them many more targets at which to aim new cutting-edge medicines. DNA contains all of the information needed to build an entire organism, be it a bacteria, plant or animal. Each human cell contains about three billion pairs of these bases. Genes, an integral part of the DNA molecule, are specific pieces of DNA that vary in length with the average gene consisting of about 2,000 base pairs.
Genes differ in the order, or sequence, of their base pairs.
The order determines which body proteins each gene produces. The body's approximately 100,000 genes determine just about every physical characteristic of a human being. The so-called Human Genome Project has involved determining the order of the base pairs in the entire genome, with the specifics of each gene to now follow. Once scientists know gene sequences, they can determine which proteins each gene produces and what those proteins do in the body. That knowledge will help scientists ascertain how some diseases are triggered.