Women closer to chimps than men?

[Bozuit]

@Colibri

It’s not at all easy to quantify genetic similarities. There are many kinds of genetic differences, including point mutations (which can “silent” mutations with no effect on protein coding; or be on non-coding bits of DNA; or be to functional genes), translocations, inversions, deletions, duplications, and chromosome fusions or splits. It’s a question as to how these different kinds of mutations should be weighted in calculating similarities.

This seems to make more sense than what I was saying. I thought I read/heard somewhere that it’s quite simple with modern technology, but I probably just misunderstood/misremember. Thanks for the explanation.

[Colibri]

@Bozuit

This seems to make more sense than what I was saying. I thought I read/heard somewhere that it’s quite simple with modern technology, but I probably just misunderstood/misremember. Thanks for the explanation.

It’s not that hard to quantify differences in point mutations in specific stretches of DNA, but when you compare entire genomes you get much more complexity. I’m sure molecular geneticists have algorithms they use, but these must rely on particular assumptions and methodology.