watervole: (radiolarian)
Judith Proctor ([personal profile] watervole) wrote2006-01-30 06:24 pm
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DNA, men and plants

Google has failed me. I know men and chimpanzees share over 98% of their DNA, but what's the % overlap for men and plants? I must have read it somewhere, becacuse I have a lingering memory that the overlap is a lot higher than you might guess owing to the sequences for basic metabolic processes.

Can anyone help?
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[identity profile] johnrw.livejournal.com 2006-01-30 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
The percentage varies depending upon which plant group gets used as the metrestick. But broadly you're looking at 65% to 80%, There are fungi out there with over ten times the DNA of any animal, which is usually ignored when running comparisons like this.

What also skews the numbers is whether you're counting total intracellular DNA or Chromosomal DNA. Mitochondria can account for 10% of DNA in some cases and given that their function remains the same their DNA is highly conserved.
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[identity profile] watervole.livejournal.com 2006-02-01 12:29 pm (UTC)(link)
THe only vaguely scientific article I've managed to find says 30%, but my gut instinct is higher. I want a figure that includes all the mitochondria and junk DNA (there's reasons why they count in this particular case) - if you can find anything reputable that actually gives a figure, it'd be helpful.
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