El Tiempo

What is Genoma?

In biology the genome of an organism is the whole hereditary information of an organism that is encoded in the DNA (or,for some viruses, RNA). This includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences.
More precisely, the genome of an organism is a complete DNA sequence of one set of chromosomes; for example, one of the two sets that a diploid individual carries in everysomatic cell. When people say that the genome of a sexually reproducing species has been "sequenced," typically they are referring to a determination of the sequences of one set of autosomes and one of each type of sex chromosome, which together represent both of the possible sexes. Even in species that exist in only one sex, what is described as "a genome sequence" may be a composite from thechromosomes of various individuals. In general use, the phrase genetic makeup is sometimes used conversationally to mean the genome of a particular individual or organism. The study of the global properties of genomes of related organisms is usually referred to as genomics, which distinguishes it from genetics which generally studies the properties of single genes or groups of genes.
Types of genomesMost biological entities more complex than a virus sometimes or always carry additional genetic material besides that which resides in their chromosomes. In some contexts, such as sequencing the genome of a pathogenic microbe, "genome" is meant to include this auxiliary material, which is carried in plasmids. In such circumstances then, "genome" describes all of the genes and non-coding DNA that havethe potential to be present.
In vertebrates such as humans, however, "genome" carries the typical connotation of only chromosomal DNA. So although human mitochondria contain genes, these genes are not considered part of the genome. In fact, mitochondria are sometimes said to have their own genome, often referred to as the "mitochondrial genome".
Genomes and genetic variation Note that a genomedoes not capture the genetic diversity or the genetic polymorphism of a species. For example, the human genome sequence in principle could be determined from just half the DNA of one cell from one individual. To learn what variations in DNA underlie particular traits or diseases requires comparisons across individuals. This point explains the common usage of "genome" (which parallels a commonusage of "gene") to refer not to any particular DNA sequence, but to a whole family of sequences that share a biological context.
Although this concept may seem counter intuitive, it is the same concept that says there is no particular shape that is the shape of a cheetah. Cheetahs vary, and so do the sequences of their genomes. Yet both the individual animals and their sequences share commonalities,so one can learn something about cheetahs and "cheetah-ness" from a single example of either.

What discovers about the genome surprised the scientists?

Scientists have cracked the code, the longest, tiniest imaginable, most important, oldest code: the code of human life, the DNA sequence of humanity. The numerics are staggering: written in just a four-letter alphabet (A, T, C, G), the humangenome is around 3 billion letters long (or about one billion "words" in length since each word (a codon) is three letters long), and there are around 600 billion-trillion copies of it on Earth (6 billion people times 100 trillion cells per person). It took about 3 billion years to create (the age of life on Earth) and only 15 years to decipher if one starts at the beginning of the Human GenomeProject. Alternatively, it might be argued that it has taken several 100,000 years (the age of Homo sapiens) for humans to look inside themselves and figure out their vital essence. 
     The human genome is the crown jewel of 20 years of biological research, the most important accomplishment in the field to date. On a scale unmatched in the history of biology, it has been a massive project...