than 200 million base pairs in the reference genome they can now say with confidence that the human genome measures 305 billion base pairs longwithin those new sequences of dna the scientists discovered more than 2000 new genes most appear to be disabled by mutations but 115 of them look as if they can produce proteins the function of which scientists may need years to figure out the consortium now estimates that the human genome contains 19969 proteincoding geneswith a complete genome finally assembled the researchers could take a better look at the variation in dna from one person to the next they discovered more than two million new spots in the genome where people differ using the new genome also helped them to avoid identifying diseaselinked mutations where none actually existits a great advance for the field said dr midhat farooqui the director of molecular oncology at childrens mercy a hospital in kansas city mo who was not involved in the projectdr farooqi has started using the genome for his research into rare childhood diseases aligning dna from his patients against the newly filled gaps to search for mutationsswitching to the new genome may be a challenge for many clinical labs however theyll have to shift all of their information about the links between genes and diseases to a new map of the genome there will be a big effort but it will take a couple years said dr sharon plon a medical geneticist at baylor college of medicine in houstondr altemose plans on using the complete genome to explore a particularly mysterious region in each chromosome known as the centromere instead of storing genes centromeres anchor proteins that move chromosomes around a cell as it divides the centromere region contains thousands of repeated segments of dnain their first look dr altemose and his colleagues were struck by how different centromere regions can be from one person to another that observation suggests that centromeres have been evolving rapidly as mutations insert new pieces of repeating dna into the regions or cut other pieces outwhile some of this repeating dna may play a role in pulling chromosomes apart the researchers have also found new segments some of them millions of bases long that dont appear to be involved we dont know what theyre doing dr altemose saidbut now that the empty zones of the genome are filled in dr altemose and his colleagues can study them up close im really excited moving forward to see all the things we can discover he said