Tiny water flea has longest genome
Saturday, February 5, 2011 - 20:32
in Biology & Nature
Daphnea pulex, a 1-millimeter insect that lives in freshwater ponds around the world, has nearly 31,000 genes in its genetic blueprint – more than humans or any other creature decoded to date.Humans like to think of themselves as residing at the top of the evolutionary chain, but the tiny water flea beats them out by at least one measure — the size of its genome.