What's all this monkey business?

This week on the BBC, I read that researchers in Cambridge have sequenced the genome of the gorilla. What are you talking about? I hear you say. Well, lets start from the beginning shall we?

For those of you who don't know, a genome is an organisms entire hereditary information. For example, information on your hair colour, eye colour, height, fingerprints and pretty much everything else to do with your body can be found within your genome. Your genome is encoded by your DNA (or, if you want to get fancy, deoxyribonucleic acid!) and DNA can be found in pretty much every cell within your body. Your DNA then encodes for your genes and it is these that determine certain attributes that make you, you. Every human has a different genome, except for identical twins, and it is this that makes us all individuals.

Why is it important for us to want to sequence all of the gorilla's DNA? Well, by knowing the differences and similarities between different species of primates, we can discover why they look and act the way they do. In addition, as the gorilla's DNA is very similar to human DNA (we share 98% of our DNA with gorillas!), by studying them we may begin to understand why we behave in certain ways. For example, researchers are hoping to be able to discover information that may help us understand how and why gorillas interact and communicate with one another; by studying this, we may discover why we act the way we do in similar situations. It may also help explain how we have evolved to be different from gorillas (well, most of us at least!) as it will be the differences (all 2% of them) that make us so different from these extraordinary animals. Not only would learning this information be interesting, it could also help in the understanding of human diseases and disorders, particularly dementia. In humans, a mutation (that is a change in the genome that can occur naturally or be induced by external stimuli) that results in dementia appears not to affect gorillas. By studying this, we could perhaps find links that may help us understand and potentially cure dementia (although not entirely likely so don't get your hopes up!).

So, by studying the genetic material of these amazing animals, we may be able to add more insight into what makes us humans capable of abstract thought, one of, if not the, most important abilities we have. As this is my first post I would love to hear from anyone who reads this: let me know if its too sciencey or if I haven't explained anything properly, just general comments on how I can improve my next post. Thanks everyone and I hope you found this post at least vaguely interesting!