Since the human genome was first sequenced in 2003, the field of comparative genomics has revealed that we share common DNA with many other living organisms — yes, including our favorite yellow peeled fruit.
98 per cent of those amino acids are the same. The 50 per cent figure for people and bananas roughly means that half of our genes have counterparts in bananas. For example, both of us have some kind of gene that codes for cell growth, though these aren’t necessarily made up of the same DNA sequences.
Every living thing has DNA — or deoxyribonucleic acid – which is a blueprint of what makes you a human, your dog an animal or your roses a type of flower. You may be surprised to learn that 60 percent of the DNA present in strawberries is also present in humans.
Interestingly, carrots — along with many other plants — have about 20 percent more genes than humans. … At 32,000 genes, the carrot genome is a good deal longer than that of humans (somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 genes).
“Potato has 12 chromosomes, each one about 70 million base pairs long, which makes it about a quarter the size of the human genome.
Drosophila genome is 60% homologous to that of humans, less redundant, and about 75% of the genes responsible for human diseases have homologs in flies (Ugur et al., 2016).
More startling is an even newer discovery: we share 99% of our DNA with lettuce.