Scientists from England and Spain found that the genome of this species contains 160.45 billion base pairs; This number is significantly larger than the previous record holder, the genome of the Paris japonica plant, at 148.89 billion base pairs.
By comparison, the human genome contains only 3.1 billion base pairs.
To better imagine the scale, scientists proposed an analogy with threads: If you unwind human DNA, you get a thread about 2 meters long, while in Tmesipteris oblanceolata this length is more than 100 meters.
However, having such a large genome does not provide any advantage to Tmesipteris oblanceolata. Growing only 30 cm high, the fern grows slowly and has low photosynthetic efficiency, which is associated with an overabundance of information in the cell, slowing down internal processes.
Source: Ferra
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