Scientists Sequence The Largest Genome To Date

Thursday, March 20, 2014 - 15:20 in Biology & Nature

Loblolly pine Doug Goldman @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / USDA-NRCS-NPDT Loblolly pines are pleasant conifers that grow throughout the Southeast US, and are probably the most commercially important tree in the South. Denizens of the lowlands, they are also found in clay soils, quickly reclaim old fields, and have a fragrant smell that some say resembles rosemary (or gin). But they have another surprising trait: Their genome is the largest on record. Due to the unwieldy size of this tangle of DNA, though, it has been difficult to sequence. Now, using new methods, scientists have succeeded, and found that the genome contains 22.18 billion base pairs, making it more than seven times longer than the human genome. A total of 82 percent of the genome was made up of duplicated segments, compared with just 25 percent in humans, Science Magazine reported:  ...its large genome was too cumbersome...

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