RAS question
Human Genome Project was completed in which year?
Correct answer: (D) 2003.
The Human Genome Project was formally completed in April 2003.
Explanation
The Human Genome Project is dated to 2003 because the international consortium announced on April 14, 2003 that the project had been successfully completed and that all its goals had been met or surpassed. The project had started in 1990 under the NIH and DOE in the United States and ran as a 13-year international effort. Its flagship task was to produce the reference sequence of the human genome: the National Human Genome Research Institute describes the effort as sequencing the roughly 3 billion DNA letters in the human genome, and it involved mapping about 20,500 human genes across 3.2 billion base pairs. The June 2000 announcement was only the first draft, so the formal completion year is 2003.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) 1998 falls before the consortium's June 2000 draft announcement and is only associated here with early draft stages, not formal completion.
- (B) 2000 marks the rough or first draft of the human sequence, while Genome.gov treats April 2003 as the successful completion of the project.
- (C) 2010 is too late because the Human Genome Project had already been completed in April 2003.
Concept
This tests the Science and Technology syllabus area on biotechnology and genomics milestones. It recurs in RAS-style preparation because candidates are expected to distinguish a draft announcement from formal completion in landmark scientific projects.