-
Asked by Paka Maka 2nd (Kana) to Juhi, Matt, Gemma, David on 13 Mar 2018. This question was also asked by Snow201.
-
David Howard answered on 13 Mar 2018:
No, the number of genes is not proportional to the size of the organism. We have roughly 20,000 genes, a banana has 36,000 genes and a fruit fly has about 17,000 genes.
-
-
Gemma Chandratillake answered on 13 Mar 2018:
No – we have about the same number of genes as, say, a nematode worm that is 1mm long and only has ~1000 cells. We think that more complicated organisms (like humans) have more sophisticated ways of turning genes on and off, but the fact that we don’t actually have more genes than “simpler” organisms is a bit of a biological mystery that is yet to be completely explained!
Maybe we’re not as complex as we like to think! -
Matt Bawn answered on 13 Mar 2018:
As David and Gemma have answered no it is not. We think though that part of the reason why not is because of alternative splicing:
with this a single gene, or transcription unit, can code for multiple proteins or other gene products, depending on how the exons are spliced back together. In fact, scientists have estimated that there may be as many as 500,000 or more different human proteins, all coded by a mere 20,000 protein-coding genes.
from:
https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/eukaryotic-genome-complexity-437
Comments