Sequencing Primate Species Yields Insights for Humans.
Researchers from over 20 nations have generated the most comprehensive primate sequencing dataset to date, sequencing more than 800 genomes from 233 species around the world, representing nearly half of all primate species and all 16 families of primates on the planet. The study provides insights into long-standing questions about how humans evolved from their primate ancestors, but it also brings powerful promises to treat human disease, advance the development of personalized medicine, and boost conservation efforts for the world's most endangered species. The unprecedented study has also forged a catalogue of differences between humans and other primate species, in other words, a unique set of mutations that have defined human beings in the process of evolution.