Question: How closely related are fruits and humans?

Sahra Uygun answered on 8 Mar 2017:

Hi Jayk, Thank you for this interesting question. Firstly, the DNA found in plants/fruits and humans are the same in that same 4-letter genetic code (A, C, G, T) is used. However, how these four nucleotides are arranged as a genome, how they are expressed into amino acids and then into proteins, and how these proteins function in biological pathways are different between plants and humans. Still, based on genome comparison studies, researchers found that they could identify similar sequences between humans and plants. For example, in one study they found that 71% genes related to neurological disorders have similar sequences to the genes in the model plant.