Why so complicated?

[F, Calla & Luca]

I'm looking for some new shrubs since it's spring. A somewhat convuluted path led me to this article.  I always thought a plant's life was simple. But for now this plant holds a record of having the longest genome. Fifty times longer than ours. Strange. It looks so innocent.

http://www.worldrecordsacademy.org/science/longest_genome_ever_disc...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_japonica

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

 Extra long genomes seem to be associated with slow growth, which makes sense and also with very ancient species like cycads. Have not found anything on that yet.

So what new shrubs ar e you considering?

 

 

[F, Calla & Luca]

I need a couple of columnar, evergreen, deer proof ones for upfront. The deer have browsed the euonymus as high as they can and I don't want to put netting over it again. Also I may pick up some more Home Depot cheap shrubs for along my fence in the back. I have many but I can fill in and the common varieties HD sell look great in a year or so. It was while I was looking up Pieris Japonica that I stumbled on this.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Very cool! 

Let me dredge up some plant genetics memories...since I'm surprised they didn't explain how this happens:

When plants reproduce, very rarely their chromosomes get doubled creating a new species.  In animals, this will almost always result in death of the embryo, but in plants it usually just creates a new variety.

This is why a lot of plants have a TON of chromosomes.  It's much rarer in animals - in humans if we have even 1 extra chromosome (never mind a full 46) usually the embryo can't survive.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Yes, this polyploidy is strange but has resulted in some neat cultivars in daylilies among other things.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Polyploidy!  That's the word I was looking for.  Thanks!

It amazes me that some animals have such tiny genomes (there's a type of deer with only 4 chromosomes as I recall), whereas others have huge ones (a rat with over 100 chromosomes).

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Thanks - that explains quite a lot.  What about the shark with the huge number of genes?  Do you know anything about that?

[F, Calla & Luca]

No, maybe you could check it out and let us know.

[Pat and Traveler]

Fascinating stuff.  "The Japanese pufferfish has become a model organism because it has the shortest genome of any known vertebrate – just 400 million base pairs, representing about 25 per cent of the zebrafish genome or 10-15 per cent of the human genome. Despite its brevity, the pufferfish genome contains a similar number of genes to the human genome."

[F, Calla & Luca]

When you put it in base pair terms it's still a mighty big number. Amazing any of us are around--so complicated. Does the genome overlap explain how I look the morning after salty food ? : )

[Pat and Traveler]

Ha!  Didn't see any morning after info    :)