Light Micrograph of <i>Utricularia gibba</i> (IMAGE)

University at Buffalo

Light Micrograph of <i>Utricularia gibba</i>

Caption

This is the light micrograph of the bladder of the carnivorous bladderwort plant, Utricularia gibba. A new study finds that U. gibba has a remarkable genome for a complex organism. Just 3 percent of U. gibba 's tiny genome is made from so-called "junk DNA," compared with about 98 percent of the human genome. The finding contradicts the notion that vast quantities of noncoding junk DNA are crucial for complex life.

Credit

Enrique Ibarra-Laclette and Claudia Anah&#237; P&#233;rez-Torres

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