"the human genome" is a theoretical/chosen reference to facilitate examining the differences between any two humans' genomes.
The average human has 134 million base pairs on chromosome 11. The variant that causes sickle cell disease is defined in the standard GRCh38 to be in the 5227002th base pair, but if you could check a random real human the count would be off, because there are many variants that add or remove bases. Having this type of standard makes it more straightforward to compare and to reference new variants where all previous samples showed no variation.
It becomes more complicated when dealing with weirder variations, like "some people lack this whole section" or "this long section is flipped in some people".
Bjørnar (he/him)
npub1f7…c5yyq
2026-04-22 15:02:09 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…4emy
Author Public Key
npub1f7wtahsz4uav4xsyzt7wrmvkh6paz079ngd99tq4hstmlrhvd3zstc5yyqSeen on
wss://relay.momostr.pinkPublished at
2026-04-22 15:02:09 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "13ef3ffcdd2fa7065eb1fcf9e4c28d054148300c11b084a6d44cd631e0bb85c4",
"pubkey": "4f9cbede02af3aca9a0412fce1ed96be83d13fc59a1a52ac15bc17bf8eec6c45",
"created_at": 1776870129,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"p",
"4f9cbede02af3aca9a0412fce1ed96be83d13fc59a1a52ac15bc17bf8eec6c45"
],
[
"e",
"3643f1e5b0279cf35bc810192b21f854cd6cf25ddb70dff85c32915219002be9",
"",
"root",
"f1abe5eaad81e211946bad5dcb98e96689194c503fa819956aaa44ddcb28908b"
],
[
"p",
"f1abe5eaad81e211946bad5dcb98e96689194c503fa819956aaa44ddcb28908b"
],
[
"e",
"97e1bea56a5e15849cc961531b2c7aae6b1307afa97a3e3c64b3886689768adb",
"",
"reply",
"f1abe5eaad81e211946bad5dcb98e96689194c503fa819956aaa44ddcb28908b"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://social.coop/@btuftin/116448960782429601",
"web"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://social.coop/users/btuftin/statuses/116448960782429601",
"activitypub"
],
[
"L",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"l",
"pink.momostr.activitypub:https://social.coop/users/btuftin/statuses/116448960782429601",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"-"
]
],
"content": "\"the human genome\" is a theoretical/chosen reference to facilitate examining the differences between any two humans' genomes.\n\nThe average human has 134 million base pairs on chromosome 11. The variant that causes sickle cell disease is defined in the standard GRCh38 to be in the 5227002th base pair, but if you could check a random real human the count would be off, because there are many variants that add or remove bases. Having this type of standard makes it more straightforward to compare and to reference new variants where all previous samples showed no variation.\n\nIt becomes more complicated when dealing with weirder variations, like \"some people lack this whole section\" or \"this long section is flipped in some people\".",
"sig": "034e6c12c134731f1baff0d0a0a9bbe2cda3f3c5ec8c0647cfc73bb2fc97f0d56ffb41564ae2e02e50b685d43c98799b4eb16ea557e16ca8c460e52c64ecd686"
}