Discover the wonders of nature where size doesn’t always matter. Jaume Pellicer, an evolutionary biologist at the Botanical Institute of Barcelona, reveals that while most plants have small genomes, there are exceptional groups with genomes that stand out as some of the largest in the tree of life. Pellicer and his team delve into the study of these giant genomes to unravel their evolutionary mysteries and functions within the organisms that possess them.
Previous research hinted at the large genomes of fork ferns (Tmesipteris). Intrigued, the team conducted an in-depth analysis of six fork fern species in the South Pacific islands of New Caledonia. By isolating the nuclei from the ferns’ leaves and comparing their genome size to plants with smaller genomes, the researchers made a groundbreaking discovery.
Among the species studied, T. oblanceolata emerged with the largest genome ever recorded. Despite its small size of up to 15 centimeters, this fern, which thrives on larger forest plants, boasts a genome length of 160 billion nucleobases, the building blocks of DNA.
2024-05-31 10:00:00
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