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Published online 8 May 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.806
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Giant bacterium carries thousands of genomes
Why does it bother?
It seems like a peculiar case of genomic overkill: a single-celled bacterium has been found that keeps tens of thousands of copies of its genome. The finding sets a record for most genomes per cell, but also poses an obvious question: what could be the advantage of stashing away as much as 200,000 copies of your genome?
The number of genome copies in each cell varies by species.
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how did you found gigantism in this bacteria? such a confusing idea. From Tiurma Simanjuntak
Extreme polyploidy in a large bacterium or extreme dogmatism by some bacteriologists?------------- I have followed the stories on this giant bacterium for quite some time and developed an immune system against sensational reports on this amazing bacterium. Many times I found that the stories on this yet-to-be-cultured bacterium are weird to logical sense. As a matter of fact, I even published a review/commentary entitled "Eccentric Microbes or Eccentric Microbiologists? - Recapturing a 15-Year-Long Fight against Dogma" (Pioneer 1: 33-48, 2006) to cover some unbelievable stories on this unique bacterium (http://im1.biz/albums/userpics/10001/P2006V1N1A8_Eccentric.htm or http://im1.biz/albums/userpics/10001/P2006V1N1A8_Eccentric.pdf ).///// My logical sense told me that there is also likely a chance that the conclusion of extreme polyploidy for this giant bacterium will be a mistake due to the reliance on some dogmatic assumptions. However, I am going to follow a scholar dispute with the authors by submitting a Letter to PNAS. I hope that PNAS will not reject my submission like it has done so many times before against my valid criticisms. ------ Shi V. Liu (SVL@logibio.com; http://im1.biz; http://blog.sina.com.cn/im1)