Is There an Upper Limit to Genome Size?

Trends in Plant Science
Oriane HidalgoIlia J Leitch

Abstract

At 50-fold the size of the human genome (3 Gb), the staggeringly huge genome of 147.3 Gb recently discovered in the fern Tmesipteris obliqua is comparable in size to those of the other plant and animal record-holders (i.e., Paris japonica, a flowering plant with a genome size of 148.8 Gb, and Protopterus aethiopicus, a lungfish with a genome of 130 Gb). The synthesis of available information on giant genomes suggests that the biological limit to genome size expansion in eukaryotes may have been reached. We propose several explanations for why the genomes of ferns, flowering plants, and lungfish, all of which have independently undergone dramatic increases in genome size through a variety of mechanisms, do not exceed 150 Gb.

Citations

Feb 15, 2018·Genes·Jaume PellicerIlia J Leitch
Jul 29, 2020·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Wanding ZhouPeter A Jones
Apr 23, 2020·Physical Biology·M Al MamunT J Newman
Jul 4, 2018·Nature Plants·Fay-Wei LiKathleen M Pryer
May 8, 2018·Applications in Plant Sciences·Fay-Wei Li, Alex Harkess
Dec 23, 2020·Molecular Ecology Resources·Roberta GargiuloMichael F Fay
Dec 5, 2020·Plants·Nour Abdel SamadMagda Bou Dagher-Kharrat
Jul 6, 2021·Trends in Plant Science·Lubna FaizullahIlia J Leitch

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