Scientists have discovered the organism with the largest known genome, containing 160 billion base pairs. That makes it more than 50 times bigger than the human genome, and the organism it’s describing is a tiny fork fern you wouldn’t even notice if you tripped over it in the forest. Crammed inside every single living cell is the entire blueprint for building that organism.
As such, DNA is an incredibly dense data storage medium, with a single gram able to store , so it’s no surprise that scientists are exploring . Now, the life form with the largest known genome has been identified – and it’s not what you might think. A humble fern species known as has been found to sport a genome made up of 160.
45 billion base pairs (Gbp). For reference, the human genome packs 3.1 Gbp.
Another way to visualize that is to imagine the DNA strands unraveled. Ours would stretch out 2 m (6.6 ft), about as tall as LeBron James.
But the genome would be well over 100 m (328 ft) – taller than the Statue of Liberty or the tower housing Big Ben. As such, this innocuous fern has snatched up three Guinness World Record titles – largest genome, largest plant genome, and largest fern genome – although you could argue that the first one is enough. It steals the crown from another plant, , with its previous record-holding genome of 148.
89 Gbp. In true TARDIS fashion, you wouldn’t know just by looking at it how much bigger this fern was on the inside. By all accounts it’s a pretty unremar.
