Re: why different vegetables have different amount of DNA?

Date: Mon Jan 19 02:09:11 2004
Posted By: Jeremy Cherfas, Staff, Public Awareness, IPGRI (International Plant Genetic Resources Institute)
Area of science: Genetics
ID: 1074287976.Ge

Message:

Dear Nicole

You have discovered one of the great mysteries of biology. Nobody knows why different species have different amounts of DNA. On a quick search of the Web I found this slide.

It is nothing to do with complexity, or life history, or anything like that. It is just a puzzle.

One thing you might try and do is see whether the amount of DNA you extracted from the different vegetables is roughly the same as other people get, but I think it will be difficult to find out how much the different vegetables contain.

Best wishes
Jeremy

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