TonyLock Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 If you were able to write out the human genome in to a computer text file, how big do you think that file would be in terms of bytes? If each base pair strand is equivalent to 12 bytes, then I'm guessing the file may be about one gig. Just wondering. Any geneticists here on Neowin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloodrain Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 its over WUN THOUSAND!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Lyle Global Moderator Posted August 22, 2009 Global Moderator Share Posted August 22, 2009 is this a real question? I dont think you could possibly put an answer on this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyLock Posted August 22, 2009 Author Share Posted August 22, 2009 It's a very valid question and I have a very good reason for asking it. I will post more about my reasoning in another tread later on. I had a look on Yahoo Answers and I read this: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...25135324AApHMlU I wonder if the Human Genome Project have the full file for us to download? If they RAR it up, the file should compress nicely for about 50MB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+virtorio MVC Posted August 22, 2009 MVC Share Posted August 22, 2009 I don't know a thing about this, but it looks that the Wikipedia page may have the exact answer you're looking for: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_genome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azusa Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 5.96046448 gigabytes going on the number of base pairs x 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Lyle Global Moderator Posted August 22, 2009 Global Moderator Share Posted August 22, 2009 Wouldn't each human being have a unique amount of "bytes"? I won't think there is an exact amount of "bytes" per human genome.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyLock Posted August 22, 2009 Author Share Posted August 22, 2009 Also, does that sequence include the RNA sequence too? Wouldn't each human being have a unique amount of "bytes"? I won't think there is an exact amount of "bytes" per human genome.. I think if you have down syndrome, you may have more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soumyasch Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 Why would you need 12 bytes per base pair? There can be only four types of pairing (AT, TA, GC, CG). So, one pair can be encoded in two bits. [say, 00=AT, 01=TA, 10=GC, 11=CG]. Since a male human has 3080 Million base pairs in his DNA, it translates to 6160000000 bits or a little more than 734 MB. And for the human female with 3022 base pairs in her DNA, its 6044000000 bits or a little more than 720 MB. That's of course assuming writing it in binary. Writing it in ASCII will be 8 times larger, and using Unicode will be two or four times larger than the ASCII text file. I don't know how well it will get compressed. Edit: Wikipedia gets a big larger file size. Edit 2: While I was calculating, virtorio beat me with the WP link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowl Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 Around 807 403 520 bytes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qdave Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 It says on wiki that it would be 770MB. Thats not much really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhangm Supervisor Posted August 22, 2009 Supervisor Share Posted August 22, 2009 Also, does that sequence include the RNA sequence too? Central dogma of genetics: DNA -> RNA -> Protein. The short story is that RNA is transcribed from DNA (the genome). So what are you asking for exactly? The entire genome as in all DNA contained in a human cell's chromosomes? Total coding regions? Total protein-encoding genes? Total DNA and products such as mRNA, siRNA, miRNA, tRNA, rRNA? Say, 00=AT, 01=TA, 10=GC, 11=CG If you're willing to simplify and assume Watson-Crick base-pairing, then you may as well take only the total genome length (as opposed to total genome length x 2 to account for dsDNA), since A "always" pairs with T, and C "always" base pairs with G. If you want to get more complicated, you will have modified bases, ranging from methylation, acetylation, and a few other base analogues, as well as non-W/C pairing. Also note the presence of mobile DNA elements such as (retro)transposons. They can move or replicate and insert themselves back into the genome. You also get all sorts of other crazy events like site-specific recombination that can result in duplication or excision of a stretch of DNA from a replicating chromosome, so really, the take-home message is that it is a freaking miracle that anything manages to live. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PL_ Veteran Posted August 22, 2009 Veteran Share Posted August 22, 2009 Wouldn't each human being have a unique amount of "bytes"? I won't think there is an exact amount of "bytes" per human genome.. Surely everyone has the same amount (unless they have a genetic disorder like Down's syndrome). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhangm Supervisor Posted August 22, 2009 Supervisor Share Posted August 22, 2009 Surely everyone has the same amount (unless they have a genetic disorder like Down's syndrome). No... You'll probably see variation even between cells in the same individual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyLock Posted August 22, 2009 Author Share Posted August 22, 2009 Anyone know if the HGP has a 700MB download someone's DNA? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuckerm Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 Why are you so intrested in this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹ Posted August 22, 2009 Subscriber¹ Share Posted August 22, 2009 the take-home message is that it is a freaking miracle that anything manages to live. lol, this^ I think there are quite large issues with the HGP (or anyone else) publishing somebody's genome, I doubt they'd allow any Joe Bloggs to download it. edit: "All genome sequence generated by the Human Genome Project has been deposited into GenBank, a public database freely accessible by anyone with a connection to the Internet." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiagosilva29 Posted August 22, 2009 Share Posted August 22, 2009 Why are you so intrested in this? Science? Will someone just give the .torrent? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyLock Posted August 22, 2009 Author Share Posted August 22, 2009 I do recall it was available as some point a few years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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