Genetic Diversity Explained: Human Genome, Genetics, Genomics, and More
These days, terms like genetic diversity come up in pretty much every conversation. With a heightened sense regarding diversity and inclusion, this term of biology has become both a social and political phenomenon. By definition, it refers to the number of different alleles of genes in a population. In academic terms, it is the variation in the amount of genetic information within and among individuals of a population, a species, or a community.
As you can see from the above definitions, it takes a lot to understand genetic diversity properly. The first step is to learn a few basic definitions listed below:
Genetics
In popular terms, genetics is the study of heredity. It explores the variation of inherited characteristics in humans and other species. Medically, It also refers to the genetic features of an organism and its characteristics.
Genome
Genome is the complete set of genetic instructions found in an organism, All the necessary information required for an organism to be built, grow, and develop is found in its genome.
Inevitably, the human genome refers to the genome sequence in humans. It is basically a set of nucleic acid sequences encoded as DNA molecules in the 23 human chromosome pairs.
Genomics
It’s genomics that is making the study of the human genome and other organisms possible. A branch of molecular biology, genomics concentrates on studying the structure, function, evolution, and mapping of genomes. It focuses on whole genomes of organisms by incorporating different elements from genetics.
With the combination of recombinant DNA, bioinformatics, and different DNA sequencing methods, genomics sequence, assemble and analyse the structural variations of genomes and how they affect their functions. Traditionally, it is used to define gene structure and gene regulation. It is now also used to explain genetic diversity.