• Question: how many different types off DNA do we share with a banana

    Asked by anon-176078 to Stephen on 12 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Stephen MacKenzie

      Stephen MacKenzie answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      Hi there, this is a great question although I am not a geneticist so I am not really the right person to ask. A quick look online shows a lot of people suggesting we share around 60% of DNA with Bananas. I found this answer from a similar student chat exercise to this one at the National Human Genome Research Institute which seems to back up this claim

      https://www.genome.gov/dnaday/q.cfm?aid=785&year=2010

Comments

  • Photo: Mark

    Mark commented on :

    Ha I sometimes wonder if I’m more banana than man 😀

    What the question really is, is how much of our DNA is shared with a banana.
    Stephen has answered that nicely.

    Going further, we share about 99% of our DNA with chimpanzees (that is, our genomes look 99% the same).
    Also, mushrooms have more in common with us than plants!