Recent studies reveal that a grape has more genomes than the average human. How does this make you feel?
by 
Quackers
ANSWERS: 5
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here's a link to one of the articles http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-briefs29sep29,1,6717193.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
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"A team of French and Italian researchers has mapped the genome of the pinot noir grape, used to make Champagne and many red wines. It has about 30,000 genes in its DNA, the researchers reported Thursday in the journal Nature. That's more than the human genome, which contains some 20,000 to 25,000 genes. The team said its research had confirmed that the grape has an unusually high number of genes dedicated to producing flavor." http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-briefs29sep29,1,6717193.story?coll=la-headlines-nation ----- I am guessing that us humans don't have many genes dedicated to producing flavour. That's got to work to our advantage when facing predators... "Go for the grapes, not me!"
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Glad to know that there is something more complicated/complex in the world than humans! :)As we imbibe, do we retain some of those genomes? Do they comingle with our genomes? :)
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It makes me feel . . . like eating grapes.
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Firstly, you mean genes, not genomes: everything has exactly one genome, the list of genes it has. However, possessing a lot of genes does not mean anything much. In some cases, it just means possessing a lot of duplicates. In others, it is a measure of the complex environment in which the species lives. We warm-bloods have made life easy for the genes that make our cells work: they are always at the same temperature. Species that have to handle (for example) lots of different temperature ranges need lots of genes to keep the machinery going at all these temperatures. Thinking that having lots of genes is good is like thinking that the book withe the most words is best. Or, to put it another way, its not what you have got but what you do with them.
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