• Question: Does race affect people\'s DNA structure? So, do people from similar parts of the world all have similar DNA?

    Asked by happybirthdayjulia to Chris, Kay, Kerstin, Lorna, Liv on 16 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Kay Penicud

      Kay Penicud answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      Nope, the structure is absolutely identical in all living things, plants, animals, people.

    • Photo: Kerstin Zechner

      Kerstin Zechner answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      DNA sequences between all races are very similar and it used to be believed that all humans share 99.9% of DNA sequences. However, it has recently been shown that some DNA sequences, that don’t code for genes, are very variable between different individuals. This variation has nothing to do with race. One variation in DNA sequences that can show where you come from, is known as single nucleotide polymorphism. This is when just a single letter of the DNA code is altered and these alterations are generally found on the same areas of the DNA sequence in people of the same background.

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