All Humans Are 99.9 Percent Genetically Identical

People differ in countless visible ways, but at the level of DNA those differences are small. The U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute states that all human beings are 99.9 percent identical in their genetic makeup. The remainder still matters. According to the institute, differences in the remaining 0.1 percent hold important clues about the causes of diseases. Studying them is the work of two related fields. Genetics refers to the study of genes and the way certain traits or conditions are passed down from one generation to another. Genomics is a more recent term that describes the study of all of a person’s genes, the genome, including how those genes interact with each other and with the person’s environment. The institute says genomics is helping researchers discover why some people get sick from certain infections and behaviors while others do not.