Human Genome Times 50 in One Small Flower
08/10/10 15:26 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Submitted by S. Pelech - Kinexus on Mon, 09/10/2012 - 04:58.
The occurrence of huge genomes in diverse organisms has been known for many years. One of the most ancient living fossils is the lungfish Protopterus aethiopicus. Its genome has been estimated to have 139 billion base pairs, It would appear that the burden of the extra DNA in its chromosomes did not compromise on its survivability as species for over 300,000,000 years.
Some other examples of organisms with large genomes include the flower Fritillaria assyriaca with 125 billion base pairs and the Easter lily Lilium longiformum with 90 billion base pairs. Thanks to human selection, the Easter lily is widely propagated and is certainly not rare. I never observed this plant to be particularly slow growing in my own garden. I doubt that it is that much different from the mustard plant, which has a genome that is over 650-times smaller with only 0.135 billion base pairs.
It would seem that there is not a strong link between the size of a genome and the rate of growth, life span or evolutionary selection for a species based on the available data.
Link to the original blog post.
The occurrence of huge genomes in diverse organisms has been known for many years. One of the most ancient living fossils is the lungfish Protopterus aethiopicus. Its genome has been estimated to have 139 billion base pairs, It would appear that the burden of the extra DNA in its chromosomes did not compromise on its survivability as species for over 300,000,000 years.
Some other examples of organisms with large genomes include the flower Fritillaria assyriaca with 125 billion base pairs and the Easter lily Lilium longiformum with 90 billion base pairs. Thanks to human selection, the Easter lily is widely propagated and is certainly not rare. I never observed this plant to be particularly slow growing in my own garden. I doubt that it is that much different from the mustard plant, which has a genome that is over 650-times smaller with only 0.135 billion base pairs.
It would seem that there is not a strong link between the size of a genome and the rate of growth, life span or evolutionary selection for a species based on the available data.
Link to the original blog post.