Faster rates of evolution are linked to tiny genomes
Thursday, August 6, 2020 - 11:31
in Biology & Nature
Inside every cell lies a genome - a full set of DNA that contains the instructions for building an organism. Across the biological world, genomes show a staggering diversity in size but scientists still don't fully understand why. Now, scientists have found a link between mutation rate - how quickly the DNA sequence changes - and genome size. Writing in Current Biology, the researchers reported that prokaryotes with higher mutation rates lose genes at a faster pace, and therefore have smaller genomes.