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Largest Genome Ever

Posted by timothy on from the trojan-marketing-campaign dept.

sciencehabit writes "A rare Japanese flower named Paris japonica sports an astonishing 149 billion base pairs, making it 50 times the size of a human genome — and the largest genome ever found. The genome would be taller than Big Ben if stretched out end to end. The researchers warn however that big genomes tend to be a liability: plants with lots of DNA have more trouble tolerating pollution and extreme climatic extinctions—and they grow more slowly than plants with less DNA, because it takes so long to replicate their genome."

7 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Picture by Glonoinha · · Score: 5, Funny

    Since the article was light on visuals, I found a picture of the largest genome ever.

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    Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
  2. Largest Genome ever by cappp · · Score: 4, Funny

    My girlfriend always said it's not the size of the genome that counts, its what you do with it.

    1. Re:Largest Genome ever by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, they always say that if you have a small genome.

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      That is all.
  3. Re:Can atheists refute one simple fact? by norppalaho · · Score: 5, Funny

    Please to be fucking off of my internet.

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    One of the coolest sites, ever: zombo.com
  4. think i saw this before... by Ubergrendle · · Score: 4, Funny

    So does this plant run around asking for a MUL-TI-PASS?

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    John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
  5. Thats Big by SuperTechnoNerd · · Score: 3, Funny

    It must be made by Microsoft. Far too many lines of code. :)

  6. Bloatware... by SpaceAmoeba · · Score: 3, Funny

    Clearly humans are more efficiently coded.