Scientists had previously hypothesized that an organism couldn’t have a genome with fewer than 400,000 nucleotides, the units that compose a strand of DNA. But Carsonella’s genome has evolved right past that theoretical limit, weighing in at a mere 160,000 bases. In fact, it is the smallest genome ever sequenced. Scientists are still not entirely sure how these bacteria and the insects that house them continue to survive.
Wow, that is pretty cool. Granted, I can only act like I really have a clue what this means, but it’s quite cool anyways.
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