What is a cell nucleus?
The nucleus is a separate compartment in the cell that contains the genetic information of the organism, its DNA. Human DNA content in each nucleus is tightly packed into 23 pairs of chromosomes. What are chromosomes? Chromosomes are rod-like structures, made up of DNA. Of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes, we inherit one set of 23 chromosomes from our mother, and another set from our father. Egg and sperm cells carry single sets of 23 chromosomes. Each of the human chromosomes contains hundreds to thousands of genes. What is the Human Genome Project (HGP)? This was a project that started in October, 1990 – and currently involves 18 countries around the world. The goal was to map out the human genome in 15 years’ time. Scientists finished ahead of schedule and published a ‘rough’ draft in June, 2000. The final version should be completed in 2003. The HGP will try to understand the genomes of various organisms, such as mice, fruit flies, roundworms and yeast. These organisms are called
