Solved cryptogram
Sequencing the human genome turned up far fewer genes than the bets placed before it.
Biology Facts, sourced to National Human Genome Research Institute.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 70 letters over 20 different ones, graded medium.
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What it means
Estimates before the project ran from fifty thousand to well over a hundred thousand, and researchers ran an open sweepstake on the number. The answer came in around twenty thousand, which is not many more than a roundworm has. The complexity is not in the count of genes but in how they are regulated and combined: one gene can be read in several ways to make several different proteins, depending on the cell and the moment.
The claim comes from National Human Genome Research Institute.
- SourceNational Human Genome Research Institute
- CollectionBiology Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length70 letters, 20 of them different
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