Human-specific sequences: isolation of species-specific DNA regions by genome subtraction

Uniqueness is fundamental to the individuality of species, and this in turn is based on the uniqueness of their genomes. For the purpose of resolving the genetic basis of human uniqueness, we describe here the isolation of human-specific sequences using the technique of genome subtraction, i.e., competitive reassociation of genomic DNAs between two very closely related species. One such sequence, HS5, was found to be present only in the human genome and absent in the genomes of non-human primates including chimpanzees, the species most closely related to humans.