How Birds Drop ‘Unnecessary’ Genes Can Help Us Understand Evolution

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:

How birds drop 'unnecessary' genes can help us understand evolution:

Humans, the latest tally suggests, have approximately 21,000 genes in our genome, the set of genetic information in an organism. But do we really need every gene we have? What if we lost three or four? What if we lost 3,000 or 4,000? Could we still function? Humans have variation in their genomes, but the overall size does not vary dramatically among individuals, with the exception of certain genetic disorders like Down's syndrome, which is caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21 and all the genes that it carries.

Each gene in a genome provides the code for a protein that affects our lives, from the growth of our hair to allowing us to digest certain foods. Most of the genes found in the human genome are probably safe for now, but there are some organisms that, over time, have cut down their genome to live in various habitats.

Scientists previously thought that every gene in an organism's genome was essential for survival because humans have little variation in our genome sizes from person to person. However, studies using animals with smaller, streamlined genomes have proven this untrue.

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