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Archived Comments for: Video Q&A: Non-coding RNAs and eukaryotic evolution - a personal view

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  1. Huge genomes and their implications

    David Wake, University of California at Berkeley

    21 July 2010

    I enjoyed this provocative presentation. It leads to this comment. Lungfish and salamanders have enormous genomes, and in consequence have enormous cells. Because most are small, salamanders have few cells, very few cells by mammalian standards. So it stands to reason that genome growth cannot be neutral because it carries too many negative implications -- slow cell cycle time, organs made of few cells, etc. So, there must be some compensation. What is it? What is the advantage for huge genomes that compensates for the demonstrably negative effects? I think this is a major challenge for genomics. The old "C-value Paradox" still lives!

    Competing interests

    No competing interests.

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