Evolution of genome size: new approaches to an old problem.
Eukaryotic genomes come in a wide variety of sizes. Haploid DNA contents (C values) range > 80,000-fold without an apparent correlation with either the complexity of the organism or the number of genes. This puzzling observation, the C-value paradox, has remained a mystery for almost half a century, despite much progress in the elucidation of the structure and function of genomes. Here I argue that new approaches focussing on the genetic mechanisms that generate genome-size differences could shed much light on the evolution of genome size.
Petrov
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Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. dpetrov@stanford.edu
D004247:DNA; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016678:Genome
D004247:DNA