It's amazing that apples need so many more chromosomes than us. Also that salamanders have the most DNA per cell on the planet.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Well they do regenerate limbs.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The more DNA you have, the harder it is to regenerate limbs. you need exactly the amount of DNA in each of your cells to regenerate, no more, no less, whatever that amount is. If humans had a stem cell producing gene, we could regenerate much better than salamanders could, since we're warm blooded and have a simpler DNA makeup.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I thought it was about 50%.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Depends what source you use. Most I've seen say it's somewhere between 50 and 60.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

With only 4 different DNA bases, there's actually quite a high probability that animals that evolved on the same planet will have roughly similar DNA.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Very true. Part of the very definition of life is the universal genetic code, which exists in all organisms except for RNA viruses (I say viruses are living organisms, though it is debatable).

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It would be interesting to see the genetic makeup of singlecell organisms on other planets and compare them to the genetic makeup of living things on this planet.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

That was on omg-facts. It's 50%.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Both 50 and 60 are just estimates. It's probably closer to 56% or something like that.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

As high as that might seem, it really isn't that much. For instance, I'm unsure of the exact percentage, but all primates share somewhere between 92 and 98 percent of our DNA.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Well, all life (that we know of) shares the same universal genetic code, most of which is dedicated to basic life structures and functions, so I'd expect at least 30% (and that's just my rough estimate, it could be way off) to be the same in most complex eukaryotes. I just think it's funny that we share more than half our genome with a plant most common people would say is very simple. And you're right about primates, we differ from chimps and bonobos by only 5%, and all others aren't far behind.

by Anonymous 12 years ago