Fact Archive

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108 copies of every gene

A tiny fern species holds the current record for the largest genome. The genome of Tmesipteris oblanceolate is 160 billion base pairs (Gbp), compared to only 3.1 Gbp for the human genome. What does all this extra DNA do? Unlike animals, many plants are able to undergo whole genome duplication events which increase the size of their genome without problems, possibly as an adaptation to environmental stress

All bananas are the same

While most fruits come in different varieties (think Granny Smith vs Gala apples), all bananas are clones of each other. While this results in bananas being one of the most consistent tasting fruits, it's causing serious issues for growers: it's much easier for diseases to infect clones compared to if every banana was unique. This is why banana-flavouring tastes so different to modern bananas: the flavouring is based on the old Gros Michel using until the 1950s