New complexity observed?

Many animals also have more base pairs than humans.All this means is that the DNA molcules are longer (being assembled from base pairs)A lot of DNA is repeated sequences where scientists are not sure of the function of the repetitions, sometimes called "junk DNA" (because they don't know).A caterpiller could have a lot of jDNA and thus have more base pairs than humans, it could also have DNA that codes specifically for the different phases built into what appears to be jDNA. This is an area where I am not expert, but there are others here who can help.btw - your book "The Complete Idiots Guide to Life Science" is not a good source either. See this review at amazon.com (click) and page down to the reviews.enjoy.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist

gman,If I remember correctly, plants have a larger genome due in part to their immune system. In humans, we have cells that are able to adapt to pathogens in a way that does not require additional DNA. They do this by cell to cell signalling and jumbling up the genes used to produce anitbodies. Each antibody is the result of a selection process between numerous shufflings of a gene set.Plants, on the other hand, rely on releasing chemicals that are produced within the plant. For each pathogen they have to hardwire a defense mechanism. This weakness of this type of defense was seen during the Potato famine in Ireland. Potatoes are actually clonal, each new plant is the product of another potato. If they do no have the instructions for fending off a certain pathogen then they are doomed. During the Potato Famine, entire clonal lines died when anew pathogen swept through the potato fields. Unlike mammals, a plants immune system is hardwired and is not adaptive. Each "anti-biotic" (using the term loosely) is the product of several enzymes each encoded on separate genes. Therefore, fending off just one pathogen requires several genes. If you realize the number of pathogens that each plant species has to fend off, you will begin to realize why their genome is so large.There could be other reasons why the plant genome is the size it is, but this is one of the main reasons.