Organism with largest genome packs 50x more DNA than a human's
Organism with largest genome packs 50x more DNA than a human's
Scientists have discovered the organism with the largest known genome, containing 160 billion base pairs. That makes it more than 50 times bigger than the human genome, and the organism it’s describing is a tiny fork fern you wouldn’t even notice if you tripped over it in the forest.
It's a fern.
I was really hoping this article would say more about what this means, but this is all we get...
Intriguingly, bigger isn’t always better when it comes to genomes, the team says. Large-genomed plants tend to have slower growth, require more nutrients and perform photosynthesis less efficiently. As such, it’s thought that T. oblanceolata is bumping up against the upper limits for genome size.
A humble fern species known as Tmesipteris oblanceolata
Dang. Okay, I wasn’t expecting a fern to have 50x human DNA
Sequencing that would be a bitch
DNA polymerase goes brrrrrrrrt