Craig Venter obituary

"Human beings possess far fewer genes than science had ever realised, he announced. We have about 30,000, far lower than previous estimates of 100,000. Such lack of heritable material showed people are not prisoners of their genes but are shaped primarily by environmental influences, he added. We simply do not have enough genes for this idea of biological determinism to be right, said Venter, who has died aged 79."

"The wonderful diversity of the human species is not hard-wired in our genetic code. Our environments are critical. The timing of Venter's announcement was dramatic. A few days later, the journals Nature and Science were scheduled to publish details of the first draft of the human genome, and outline our species' detailed genetic makeup which would indeed reveal the paucity of our genes."

"This work had been spearheaded by the US government and the UK Wellcome Trust's Sanger Centre, in an uneasy partnership with Venter's own privately funded sequencing company, Celera Genomics. BioVision 2001 had been set up to orchestrate the publication of the partnership's results, but at the conference's closing sessions several days later. Venter had now thrown a spanner into this carefully arranged process."

"Apart from revealing our unexpected low gene count (the figure has since been reduced even further, to about 20,000), Venter had completely undermined the impact his rivals were due to make. Journalists in the audience, myself included, were startled. Did you know these results are embargoed until next week? I asked Venter. It might be their embargo but it wasn't mine, he replied."

Humans have about 30,000 genes, far fewer than earlier estimates of 100,000. The limited number of heritable genes suggests people are not determined primarily by genes and are instead shaped largely by environmental influences. The diversity of the human species is not hard-wired in genetic code. The timing of the announcement was dramatic because major journals were scheduled to publish the first draft of the human genome shortly afterward. The genome work involved a partnership between US government efforts, the UK Wellcome Trust’s Sanger Centre, and Celera Genomics. The announcement disrupted the planned release and reduced the impact of rival publications.

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