Scientists have sequenced the remaining 8% of the human genome - DNA sequencing is almost complete.

     The international consortium Telomere to Telomere has sequenced the remaining 8% of the human genome, which had not been fully sequenced before. We are talking about areas with heterochromatin, which they initially decided to skip, as they were considered not very important for solving scientific and medical problems, writes Naked Science.

    The human genome was almost completely deciphered back in 2003. Scientists around the world have sequenced approximately 92% of DNA - the genes and the regions in between that make up euchromatin.

    The researchers then bypassed sections of heterochromatin - they are distinguished by long duplicated sequences. It was extremely difficult to sequence hundreds of indistinguishable short code repetitions.

    Heterochromatin was left for later - it was believed that its sequencing would not help solve medical problems. But to fully understand the structure of DNA, it must at least be fully sequenced.

    Thanks to the emergence of new technologies, scientists figured out the remaining 8% of the genome, the consortium only had to sequence heterochromatin on the unpaired Y chromosome.

    20 years after the decoding of human DNA, it became clear that heterochromatin performs not only structural, but also, for example, regulatory functions. Due to malfunctions in the work of heterochromatin, serious diseases can develop.