Organism with the largest genome discovered (3 photos)

A seemingly unremarkable fern that grows only on a remote Pacific island has won the Guinness World Record for having the largest genome of any organism on Earth. A New Caledonian plant, Tmesipteris oblanceolata, has 50 times more DNA in its cell nucleus than a human.





Fern Tmesipteris oblanceolata

If you unravel the DNA of one of the fern cells, which is only a fraction of a millimeter wide, it would stretch 106 meters.

The fern genome has 160 billion base pairs, which determine the length of the DNA. This is seven percent more than the previous record holder - the Japanese plant Paris japonica.

The human genome consists of approximately 3.1 billion base pairs. If our DNA were unraveled, it would be about two meters long.

Study co-author Ilia Leitch, from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the UK, said the team was "very surprised to find more than Paris japonica."

"We thought we had already reached the biological limit."

The five to 10 centimeter tall fern is found only in New Caledonia, a French Pacific island.



The Guinness Book of World Records has awarded Tmesipteris oblanceolata the title of "largest genome".

According to the editor-in-chief of the Guinness Book of Records, Adam Millward, the victory of this plant proves that “record holders do not always have spectacular external data.”

Among animals, the marbled protoptera fish has the largest genome (130 billion base pairs).



Marble Protopter

Although plants have the largest genomes, they can also be tiny. Thus, the carnivorous plant Genlisea aurea has only 0.06 billion pairs.

"However, the huge genome is rather a disadvantage," says Leitch.

The more massive the DNA, the larger the cells must be to accommodate it. This means that the leaf pores must be larger, which slows down their growth. It is also more difficult to make new copies of DNA, limiting reproductive options. Therefore, the most massive genomes are found in slow-growing perennial plants.