A Comparison of 11,000 Protein-Coding Genes from Humans and Chimpanzees

question 35

Essay

A comparison of 11,000 protein-coding genes from humans and chimpanzees revealed a significantly higher ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous polymorphism in humans compared to the ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitutions between the two species, that is, pN/pS > dN/dS. What does this indicate about the variation in human populations?

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Definitions:

Average Total Cost

The total costs of production divided by the total output, indicating the average cost per unit of output.

Total Cost

The combined total of expenses involved in making goods or services, including costs that do not change and those that do.

Variable Input

Any resource used in production whose quantity can be changed in the short term to increase or decrease output, such as labor or raw materials.

Marginal Cost

The expenditure incurred from creating one more unit of a product or service.