Final answer:
The human body can produce well over a million different kinds of proteins, built from 20 common amino acids. Despite having less than 50,000 genes, alternate splicing and modifications allow for this diversity.
Step-by-step explanation:
The human body is estimated to contain well over a million different kinds of proteins. While our genome contains less than 50,000 genes, it is able to produce a vastly larger number of unique proteins due to processes like alternative splicing and post-translational modifications. Essentially, the same gene can give rise to multiple different proteins, and this contributes to the biological complexity and the ability of the body to perform a myriad of functions. The proteins in our body are all polymers of amino acids, with only 20 common amino acids required to build them. These amino acids can combine in thousands of different ways to form roughly 100,000 or more unique proteins.