Pippin

Thanks for all the replies! I understand cell mutation better now. I thought DNA was always evolving which would have explained why twins' faces are more and more different as time goes by. So, since every cell can possibly mute, we must use several cells to extract DNA from someone. Given a random cell from a healthy human, what is the probability that its DNA muted ? Also, is it unsafe to extract DNA from multiple hair root cells only (for example) ?

Hello, I would have a few questions regarding mankind's current knowledge of Genetics, as of 2014. 1. It was my understanding that we humans were defined by up to 35,000 different genes. Correct ? 2. Among these 35,000 different genes, how many do we know well enough to tell what impact they have on the body and proteins? 3. I heard it was possible to copy any human's DNA, and as a result, any human's full genome. How do we do that? How long does it take? It was also my understanding that we needed a "living" cell of the subject to do that, so it is not possible with bones, hair and whatnot. Is this still correct nowadays ? 4. For any human, a few of their genes are bound to change during their lifetime, and that is called a "mutation". So, you never get the original DNA of someone, only their current one, and there is no way to extract their original DNA. Correct ? 5. Assuming we can extract DNA, I figured it was only a matter of time before we find a way to (unethically) create human "clones", like we did with Dolly. But as far as I know, we don't know yet how to create a foetus solely based on their DNA (that is, solely based on a very long list of amino acids stored in computers), correct? Has there been any kind of research carried out regarding this ? Thanks in advance for your replies. Genetics, not sure if awesome or scary!