In: Biology
What are the basic differences between eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes, in terms of amount of DNA and number of genes? What is the usual correlation WITHIN eukaryotic genomes between amount of DNA and number of genes?
Ans. Amount of DNA present in eukaryotes is larger than that of prokaryotes. Prokaryotes have a circular DNA molecule as its genome whereas eukaryotes have linear DNA molecules in the form of chromosomes constitute the genome. For example, yeast genome is 2.5 times larger than E.coli genome.
The number of genes present is generally higher in eukaryotes than prokaryotes. Citing an example, E.coli has around 4288 genes whereas Yeast has around 6275 genes. Human has around 30,000 genes.
There is no linear correlation between genome size and number of genes in eukaryotes. For example, genome size of Homo sapiens has larger genome size than Mus musculus but number of genes present is more in Mus musculus than Homo sapiens.