A study on the genomes of more than 100,000 animal species revealed that among humans, the genetic diversity is minimal, at only 0.1%. The study, entitled “Why should the mitochondrion define species?”, was published in the scientific review “Human Evolution”.
This study, which has used more than five million genetic samples belonging to 100,000 animal species, revealed that the genetic difference between any two individuals on the planet is only 0.1%, or in other words, only 1 out of every 1,000 genes that make up a DNA sequence.
“Bad news for those who defend any concept of genetic supremacy among different human groups,” said the study’s authors Jesse Ausubel, Mark Stoeckle, both from Rockefeller University, in the USA, and David Thaler, from the University of Basel (Switzerland).
Jesse Ausubel expressed that “all humans are genetically compatible even if we find other reasons to be incompatible. It’s really impressive to see how much we have in common. But humans tend to forget it.”
For his part, Dr. Thaler from the University of Basel, in Switzerland, explained that the genetic differences that some want to identify “are the result of the trends of observers.” He then added that, when this aspect is studied in depths, the genetic diversity among humans is very low.
90% of all the animal species in the world present the same 0.1% genetic diversity
This discovery has been made by the first study on all the genetic material accumulated over the last 15 years in the GenBank database of the U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information.
The study indicates that, genetically, that 90% of animal species showing a genetic variation of only 0.1% appeared 100,000-200,000 years ago.
“Our study strengthens the argument that the low variation in mitochondrial DNA in modern humans also explains the similar low variation in more than 90% of living animal species,” explained Dr. Thaler.
Also, the study suggests that all the animals are younger species on Earth.
Jesse Ausubel points out that all the living species on Earth evolved from common ancestors and that “genetically, the world is not so different as there are no intermediate species” that connect two other existing species.
In conclusion, according to scientists, humans’ genetic diversity is of only 0.1%, an observation that is also available for about 90% of all the animal species, a fact that shows that evolution is only at its earlier stages, despite common beliefs.
