Human genome project

Project organized by international scientific teams to determine the structure of the human DNA, to identify all the genes present in it and understand their functions and purposes. The decoding of the human genome was accomplished by two parallel efforts. The government-backed project began in 1990 and involved widespread international collaboration; it cost $3 billion. A private effort led by Dr. J. Craig Venter began in 1998 and cost $300 million. The public and private efforts completed their work at about the same time. Developments since 2000 have affected the classical understanding of cellular machinery. Information essential to development is contained in DNA sequences; RNA carries information which is ultimately transcribed into proteins. Genes are DNA carrying information that will be expressed as proteins. However, genes are only a small percentage of the human genome. These genes code for amino acids that fold into three-dimensional proteins. As yet there is only a beginning of understanding of how a protein’s configuration controls or affects cellular function. Ninety-eight percent or so of the genome doesn't code for proteins; this is called “junk DNA,” The full scope and importance of genetic variation between individuals remains undefined.