# genes in human genome?
18,308 genes according to Carl Zimmer via PANTHER.
As Carl Zimmer notes, the presumed number of genes in the human genome has been steadily declining over the years. Early estimates were in the 100K range. For historical perspective, Lee Rowen won the GeneSweep competition back in 2003 for betting that the human genome contained 25,947 genes — the lowest estimate in the entire competition.
(hat tip, Hsien)
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ORNL, How Many Genes in the Human Genome?
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Even if you didn't know it before this moment, getting a personal copy of your genome sequence is a lifestyle choice that you may want to consider.
So are you going to take the personal genomics plunge? How are you going to decide? What are the issues? How are other people making this decision? Who is doing interesting work relevant to these choices? By the way, what is relevant? These are some of the issues this blog is intended to address.
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Hi Jason:
I can’t say anything about PANTHER as I’m not familiar with it. However, last year I had lengthy email exchange with a curator at NCBI trying to get at the same question: how many genes in the human genome? At that time (April 2006), NCBI’s totals were as follows:
Protein coding genes:
16787 gene with protein product, function known or
inferred
5137 gene with protein product, function unknown
26 gene with protein product, inferred
Genes that do not encode a protein:
125
Named structural RNAs:
19 RNA, Cajal body-specific
331 RNA, micro
7 RNA, ribosomal
54 RNA, small nuclear
111 RNA, small nucleolar
62 RNA, transfer
Immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor segments:
440
Pseudogenes:
3113 pseudogene, not transcribed
249 pseudogene, transcribed
type unknown (some expression, the product is under review)
313
Models on the Reference assembly (and thus very tentative)
4160 protein-coding
2476 pseudogenes
The grand total was 33,410 for gene records with annotated reference sequences. Throw in the rest and you get about 39,000. From April 1 2006 (38277) to last Friday, March 16 (38672), the Entrez gene record count had shrunk by 605. Not an insignificant number, but a far cry from 25k to 18k. And if you look at the monthly record:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/Gene/gentrez_stats.cgi?TAXORG=&KING=All&GO=GO&QUICK=9606
you see that from Feb 2004 to Mar 2006, or more than two years, the number was always within hailing distance of 33,000, +/- a few hundred. Then suddenly a big jump to 39,000 last April–a genetic bumper crop apparently.
My point is that gene counts are dynamic. Yes there may be some shrinkage, but how many transcribed small RNAs remain to be discovered? (Are we really still wedded to the idea that you have to code for protein in order to be called a real gene?) Also, as I’m sure you know, 3x sequencing of Jim Watson’s genome has turned up some stuff that’s not in GenBank. Maybe it’s all heterochromatic “junk,” but right now we don’t know.
IMO, counting genes is a tricky business, like conducting a census where one’s counting methods are constantly improving and the definition of who/what counts is a moving target.