The Journey of Man: A Genetic OdysseyPenguin Adult, 2003 M05 29 - 288 pages Around 60,000 years ago, a man, identical to us in all important respects, walked the soil of Africa. Every man alive today is descended from him. How did he come to be father to all of us - a real-life Adam? And why do we come in such a huge variety of sizes, shapes, types and races if we all share a single prehistoric ancestor?
In this fascinating book, Spencer Wells shows how the truth about our ancestors is hidden in our genetic code, and reveals how developments in the cutting-edge science of population genetics have made it possible not just to discover where our ancestors lived (and who they may have fought, loved, learned from and influence) but to create a family tree for the whole of humanity. |
From inside the book
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... genome and part of the mother's genome combine in a 50 : 50 ratio to form the new genome of the baby . Biologically speaking , one of the reasons for sex is that it generates new genomes every generation . The new combinations arise ...
... genome is present in only one copy ( like a bacterial genome ) , which means that it can't recombine . Bingo . It also turns out that , instead of having one polymorphism roughly every 1,000 nucleotides , it has one every 100 or so . To ...
... genome . In the mitochondrion , for instance , there are thirty - seven . The total number of genes in the nuclear genome is around 30,000 approximately 1,500 per chromosome , on average . Most of the thousands of genes that would have ...