text: user7450: I'm confused about the difference between genome and DNA. Is it correct to say that the same type of bacteria has the same DNA? But my understanding is that it is not correct to say that the same type of human has the same DNA, since every human has a different DNA. What am I missing here?
  
  user7467: Might have misunderstood you - but "we" have sampled and "decoded" the DNA of a few humans (often volunteers who surrendered their body to science after their death) - but this gives of course only the genetic code of those few individuals. 
  When scientists say we decoded the genome they mean they deciphered which parts of the DNA "do" specific things - the actual "genes" or gene-sequences - usually done when looking at the DNA molecule packed up into the chromosomes to give easier "orientation".
  And by my understanding the first task was accomplished - supported by use of supercomputers, but the deciphering of the gene-sequences still has a long way to go for scientists to state "complete." But there is growing success - And as usual scientists will not stop until complete.
  
  user-1: DNA is the product you get if you paste the nucleotides A, T, C and G together. This is DNA and all genomes consist of these basic building blocks like a book consists of letters. Still, the genome, or the content of the book is the specific combination of these letters plus the proteins that bind to the chromosomes, the folding of the DNA and all the epigenetic modifications that can happen. So yes, we all have the same DNA in terms of the same building blocks, but the content is different.
  
  user4766: DNA is only the substance that makes up the genome.
  DNA can come with many forms. For example, the fragments you get by PCR in the lab are DNA. A bacterium also has DNA molecules in it. You may also find DNA fragments in many other places, like in our blood, or at a crime scene.
  Genome, however, is a very specific term. It means all the heritable substances in an individual or an organism. Most times, when we talk about the genome in eukaryotes, we refer to the nucleus genome, that is, the DNA in the nucleus.
  Note that genomes do not have to be made of DNA. RNA viruses, for example, only have RNA as their genomes. Yet we still refer to that as a genome, because that is the heritable substances for those viruses.
  
  user1797: All humans have some differences in their DNA, but there's far more that is shared. On average the difference between humans is only about one thousandth of their full DNA, which means we're about 99.9% the same. These differences aren't distributed fully randomly, but are often because of specific gene alternatives. (Random mutations do occur, but they are also often fatal, so the random mutations we see of living adults are much more restrictive than all the random mutations that occur.)
  To identify the human genome is to study many people's DNA and to label the parts that are shared between everyone, the parts with two or three variations, and the parts with even more variations. Even though every person has different DNA, we can still say they fit the pattern, just like every T-shirt may be unique but they all fit the T-shirt pattern and not the trousers pattern.
  
original_text: 7450: <p>I'm confused about the difference between genome and DNA. Is it correct to say that the same type of bacteria has the same DNA? But my understanding is that it is not correct to say that the same type of human has the same DNA, since every human has a different DNA. What am I missing here?</p>
   7467: <p>Might have misunderstood you - but "we" have sampled and "decoded" the DNA of a few humans (often volunteers who surrendered their body to science after their death) - but this gives of course only the genetic code of those few individuals. </p>
  
  <p>When scientists say we decoded the genome they mean they deciphered which parts of the DNA "do" specific things - the actual "genes" or gene-sequences - usually done when looking at the DNA molecule packed up into the chromosomes to give easier "orientation".</p>
  
  <p>And by my understanding the first task was accomplished - supported by use of supercomputers, but the deciphering of the gene-sequences still has a long way to go for scientists to state "complete." But there is growing success - And as usual scientists will not stop until complete.</p>
   -1: <p>DNA is the product you get if you paste the nucleotides A, T, C and G together. This is DNA and all genomes consist of these basic building blocks like a book consists of letters. Still, the genome, or the content of the book is the specific combination of these letters plus the proteins that bind to the chromosomes, the folding of the DNA and all the epigenetic modifications that can happen. So yes, we all have the same DNA in terms of the same building blocks, but the content is different.</p>
   4766: <p>DNA is only the substance that makes up the genome.</p>
  
  <p>DNA can come with many forms. For example, the fragments you get by PCR in the lab are DNA. A bacterium also has DNA molecules in it. You may also find DNA fragments in many other places, like in our blood, or at a crime scene.</p>
  
  <p>Genome, however, is a very specific term. It means all the heritable substances in an individual or an organism. Most times, when we talk about the genome in eukaryotes, we refer to the nucleus genome, that is, the DNA in the nucleus.</p>
  
  <p>Note that genomes do not have to be made of DNA. RNA viruses, for example, only have RNA as their genomes. Yet we still refer to that as a genome, because that is the heritable substances for those viruses.</p>
   1797: <p>All humans have some differences in their DNA, but there's far more that is shared. On average the difference between humans is only about <a href="http://book.bionumbers.org/how-genetically-similar-are-two-random-people/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">one thousandth</a> of their full DNA, which means we're about 99.9% the same. These differences aren't distributed fully randomly, but are often because of specific gene alternatives. (Random mutations do occur, but they are also often fatal, so the random mutations we see of living adults are much more restrictive than all the random mutations that occur.)</p>
  
  <p>To identify the human genome is to study many people's DNA and to label the parts that are shared between everyone, the parts with two or three variations, and the parts with even more variations. Even though every person has different DNA, we can still say they fit the pattern, just like every T-shirt may be unique but they all fit the T-shirt pattern and not the trousers pattern.</p>
  