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This was based on the idea that the gene was the DNA that was directly responsible for production of the functional product. The discovery of introns in the 1970s meant that many eukaryotic genes were much larger than the size of the functional product would imply.
Genome size ranges (in base pairs) of various life forms. Genome size is the total amount of DNA contained within one copy of a single complete genome.It is typically measured in terms of mass in picograms (trillionths or 10 −12 of a gram, abbreviated pg) or less frequently in daltons, or as the total number of nucleotide base pairs, usually in megabases (millions of base pairs, abbreviated ...
[23] [24] If the DNA is replicated faster than the bacterial cells divide, multiple copies of the chromosome can be present in a single cell, and if the cells divide faster than the DNA can be replicated, multiple replication of the chromosome is initiated before the division occurs, allowing daughter cells to inherit complete genomes and ...
This represents the size of a composite genome based on data from multiple individuals but it is a good indication of the typical amount of DNA in a haploid set of chromosomes because the Y chromosome is quite small. [7] Most human cells are diploid so they contain twice as much DNA (~6.2 billion base pairs).
The size of an individual gene or an organism's entire genome is often measured in base pairs because DNA is usually double-stranded. Hence, the number of total base pairs is equal to the number of nucleotides in one of the strands (with the exception of non-coding single-stranded regions of telomeres).
DNA can be copied very easily and accurately because each piece of DNA can direct the assembly of a new copy of its information. This is because DNA is made of two strands that pair together like the two sides of a zipper. The nucleotides are in the center, like the teeth in the zipper, and pair up to hold the two strands together.
Eukaryotic cells are some 10,000 times larger than prokaryotic cells by volume, and contain membrane-bound organelles. Eukaryote cells include a variety of membrane-bound structures, together forming the endomembrane system. [ 23 ]
A study that included, but was not limited to, 478 bacterial genomes, concluded that as genome size increases, the number of genes increases at a disproportionately slower rate in eukaryotes than in non-eukaryotes. Thus, the proportion of non-coding DNA goes up with genome size more quickly in non-bacteria than in bacteria.