A genetic monster
Date: 15.5.2008
A gargantuan **bacterium** carries tens of thousands of copies of its **genome**, researchers have found.
One species of the cigar-shaped bacterium Epulopiscium lives in the intestines of the unicornfish Naso tonganus, and can grow to more than half a millimetre in length. Esther Angert of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and her colleagues have found that Epulopiscium cells also contain up to 250 picograms of **DNA**, compared with a human cell's 6 picograms, and have 50,000–120,000 copies of genes believed to occur only once in each genome.
"Source":[ http://www.nano.org.uk/nanomednet/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=270&Itemid=1]
