Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

teafuck OP t1_irnbxc6 wrote

Reply to comment by InvisibleBlueRobot in What lifeform has the shortest genetic sequence? by teafuck

I suppose you could come up with a collection of traits that lifeforms are more likely to have the more complicated they get and order creatures by how many they satisfy

1

WantsToBeUnmade t1_irno3sa wrote

It doesn't really work like that as far as genomes go.

The organism with the largest genome is a plant (Paris japonica.) It has 149 billion base pairs. Humans have 3 billion.

Many plants (estimates range from 30 to 80 percent,) and a fair share of animals are polyploid. That is they have more than 2 pairs of chromosomes. Sometimes many more (some crops have 12 pairs.) That increases the size of the genome without increasing their complexity.

And in animals so many things are learned socially that complexity of form is nearly secondary to learning.

2

purduephotog t1_irny0jd wrote

> 149 billion base pairs. Humans have 3 billion.

How the...

Is this one that's been cultivated to be 'enriched'?

If this is a topic you're knowledgeable on, could you save me a few hours of reading- are there tons of duplicates? Other plants? Are there entire sequences that exist that are replicates of other sequences in there ?

1

derekjoel t1_irohal5 wrote

What really makes logical sense but still is crazy is that plants with HUGE genomes grow slower because they use a lot of cellular energy copying themselves. Bigger printouts take more energy to print, of course.

3