Comments
GeriatricZergling t1_ixmiuul wrote
Generally no, but sometimes yes.
We actually know of a fairly high number animals and plants with fully duplicated genomes (tetraploidy), and most are nearly identical to their diploid ancestors. One big difference in cell size, which seems to increase with whole genome duplicates. This has few consequences, but oddly enough it affects the call frequency in tree frogs, and fruit size (and overall size) in plants. The latter has lead to deliberate selection for and creation of whole genome duplicates in crop plants, often repeatedly- strawberries are octoploid.
However, such duplications can provide "raw material" for evolution. Now you have 4 copies of a gene to work with, so you can keep the original set and let the new copies evolve. Gene duplication is more common than many people think and an important part of evolution. Whole genome duplication is less common, but has occured several times, most notably at the origin of vertebrates and the origin of teleost fishes.
FellowHuman21 OP t1_ixmqawc wrote
Thank you.
shirk-work t1_ixmk0lq wrote
Well there's some lower limit of course but humans have way fewer genes than a potato for instance. Mostly because the potato can't get up and move to a better spot so it needs genes for drought, cold, heat and so on. So more genes doesn't necessarily mean more complex.
Rather_Dashing t1_ixnuj5h wrote
Any source for that being the reason for potatoes having more genes?
FellowHuman21 OP t1_ixmq536 wrote
Ok thank you very much. Which organism has the most most chromosomes per cell?
ApprehensiveEase2312 t1_ixmr47z wrote
Adders tongue fern is the most of all the plants, but this protist has the most chromosomes currently known.
FellowHuman21 OP t1_ixmrhhg wrote
Cool, thank you very much
[deleted] t1_ixmoyjc wrote
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[deleted] t1_ixpxnym wrote
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[deleted] t1_ixpxpjb wrote
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PYMundGenealogy t1_ixm653a wrote
For a long answer you'll need to wait for an expert; for a TL;DR: No.
Number of unique genes/quantity of meaningful DNA is ... more correlated to complexity (but also not that simple) but chromosome number can be ‘messed with’ just by having the same genetic material split into smaller chromosomes, with no effect on the organism's genetic makeup, so the number doesn't matter at all.
(See Wikipedia on microchromosomes for an example, relevant in that exotic creature, ‘chicken’.)