Human DNA Compared to Chimpanzee DNA

Humans are so similar, genetically, to the two species of chimpanzees, that humans have been referred to as the third chimpanzee.
A good reason for this, is because at least 98.5% of our DNA is shared with chimps.
Geneticists and evolutionary biologists have launched new studies to find differences in the genes, chromosomes, and biochemistry of humans and chimpanzees.
They’ll announce next week that they’ve found that humans lack a particular form of a ubiquitous cell surface molecule found in all other apes.
For this research, two new centers at Yerkes and in Leipzig, opened simultaneously last year to study the molecular evolution of the great apes.
It’s confusing that genetically, humans and chimps are closely enough related to be considered sibling species, but while most sibling species look and act the same, humans and chimps don’t look alike, or act anything alike at all.
One way to find the differences is to start with biochemical differences, and then trace them back to their genetic origins.
It has been found that human and monkey cells, compared to all other mammals, lack a particular form of sialic acid, a type of sugar, found on the surface of every cell.
In recent months, it has been discovered that humans are missing a 92-base pair section of the gene that codes for a hydroxylase enzyme in apes, however many scientists don’t believe that just this difference alone is enough the change apes to humans.
Several labs in the US and Germany have been homing in on chromosomal remodeling, which is basically that a few different chromosomes are the same in both humans and apes, but are just rearranged some.