The Human Genome Project was conducted in order to decode the entire genome of a person. The main goal of the project is to determine the sequence of nucleotides in all molecules of human DNA with the simultaneous establishment of localization of all genes. Priority areas were declared structural and functional study of the genome, as well as medical genetics and gene therapy. The Human Genome Project was started in order to get a bigger picture of a human genetic make-up. The Human Genome project can rightfully be considered a landmark work, a symbol of industrial science.
A new level of understanding of the biological foundations of man was achieved, the efforts and financial investments are fully justified. The most important consequence was that the methodological and instrumental base of science was qualitatively improved, and the latest trends received a powerful impetus. Creating the Human Genome Project has put biology in a number of those sciences that are able to implement global programs of not only theoretical but also practical plans. According to data obtained during sequencing, the size of the human genome is about 3 billion base pairs. Each of the 23 pairs of chromosomes contains a separate linear double-stranded DNA molecule.
Thus, it has become reliably known that the genome of each person consists of 23 pairs of giant DNA molecules distributed in different chromosomes, each of which contains a separate fragment of the genetic text. If the human genome is discussed in general, then the total number of such molecules is 24, and this is the first basic information that was obtained about the human genome in the analysis of chromosomes. The size of the genome and the set of genes are almost the same for all people, but many genes may be in alternative states. Of the possible alleles of a particular gene, a person receives from his parents only two – one from his mother, the other from his father.