Scientists are still betting on the number of genes in the human body

Two rival teams that cracked the human genome may have underestimated the number of human genes, according to a new computer analysis.

Two draft versions of the human genome were published in February this year, in what was hailed as a landmark in scientific achievement. The publicly funded Human Genome Project and a private US firm, Celera Genomics, put the number of human genes at around 35,000.

Now a third team, based at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, has reanalysed the raw data, using a supercomputer, and come up with a higher estimate for the number of human genes.

"We ended up with a higher estimated number of genes than the other two teams because we compared 13 different gene databases to the DNA sequences in the draft genome produced by the Human Genome Project," said Bo Yuan of Ohio State University.

The news that humans had 30,000 to 40,000 genes came as a surprise to man ...more

There are over 30,000 genes in the human body.