Pine Tree Has Largest Genome Ever Sequenced

sciencehabit (1205606) writes "Using a single pollinated pine seed, researchers have sequenced the entire genome of the loblolly pine tree--and it's a doozy. The tree's genome is largest yet sequenced: 22.18 billion base pairs, more than seven times longer than the human genome. The team found that 82% of the genome was made up of duplicated segments, compared with just 25% in humans. The researchers also identified genes responsible for important traits such as disease resistance, wood formation, and stress response."

Comments

I'm Inferior To A Tree

[JimSadler]

All those genes make humans look like flunkies. And knowing a tiny bit about Darwin maybe we could take into account that a pine tree can easily outlive any human ever born. And pine trees tend to have a very long history of reproduction compared to humans. So maybe all the thinking, feeling and running about that humans do is simply proof of our inferiority. think about it. The pine tree needs water, sunshine, a few minerals and an atmosphere and that is about it. Humans need all kinds of things. I've never seen a tree shoot anyone, go mental, or rape other trees. Trees might enjoy making humans feel like idiots.

Re:I'm Inferior To A Tree

[Samantha Wright]

While the set of large-genomed organisms does include some very sophisticated trees and flowers, it also includes several species of amoeba... so I wouldn't panic just yet.

All a big genome really means for certain is that you're good enough at finding food that you can support it. The substance is a lot more important—some species of shrimp, for example, have 88 or 92 chromosomes, but they're mostly redundant duplicates. Wheat has five copies of every chromosome, too.

Plants tend to have large genomes because they reproduce so rapidly—a field of corn has enough offspring every season to mutate every nucleotide in the whole kit and kaboodle at least once, and because they have very static, slow existences, they can afford to tune themselves very well to their environments. That's what the genes and duplicates are for—giving the plant very fine-grained control over things like how it prepares for the next season based on the weather from the last one.

Re:I'm Inferior To A Tree

[Cryacin]

The last tree to call me a knuckle dragging, chainsaw wielding idiot didn't last too long after I got the mud out of my chainsaw.

Pine trees know how to make backups

[mysidia]

The team found that 82% of the genome was made up of duplicated segments, compared with just 25% in humans.

See! The pine trees are smart and make multiple copies of their genome segments, for backup purposes. Humans always forget the importance of backups, until it's too late.

Re:A Cure At Last

[Samantha Wright]

Inadvisable—much of wood itself (not the bark, the structural stuff underneath) is dead at functional maturity. Trees are just skin and bones! (And plumbing. And really crazy hair. And roots. And sometimes genitals.)

Not biggest known, and it doesn't mean much

[Animats]

That's the largest genome that's been fully sequenced, not the largest genome known. See Comparison of different genome sizes. Genome sizes for plants vary over a huge range, and aren't closely related to organism complexity. The largest genome known is for an amoeboid.

Re:As a Bonsai artist

[Calavar]

Why is this modded up? First it is wrong even on the surface. Chordates (the phylum containing humans) first appeared around 550 million years ago. Conifers (the division -- plant equivalent of phylum -- containing pines) first appeared around 300 million years ago. Second, even trees and humans are descended from a single common ancestor, so how can trees be "evolutionarily" older than humans? Third, more time does not equal bigger genome. Genomes can shrink over time. This has happened in many species of yeast and bacteria, as smaller genomes allow them to replicate faster. Even macroscopic organisms such as birds have had their genomes shrink over time.

Re:A Cure At Last

[stoploss]

Trees are just skin and bones! (And plumbing. And really crazy hair. And roots. And sometimes genitals.)

You forgot the homunculi... tree reproduction is via proxy. Every spring I'm overwhelmed by billions of tree cumbots irritating my respiratory epithelium.

Let them take their filthy sperm tube forming function elsewhere.