South American lungfish

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About South American lungfish:

It is a freshwater species (Lepidosiren paradoxa).
It is the nearest living relative to the first land vertebrates and closely resembles its primordial ancestors dating back more than 400 million years.
Distribution: It is mainly inhabiting slow-moving and stagnant waters in Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, French Guiana and Paraguay.
It has the largest genome compared to any of the animals on the earth.
- The length of the DNA in each cell of this lungfish would extend almost 60 metres. The human genome would extend a mere 2 metres.
Its genome is more than 50 times the human genome’s size.
The world’s four other lungfish species live in Africa, also with large genomes.
Its genomes are largely composed of repetitive elements – about 90% of the genome.

Key features of Lungfish

Lungfish first appeared during the Devonian Period.
- It was during the Devonian that one of the most important moments in the history of life on the earth occurred: when fish possessing lungs and muscular fins evolved into the first tetrapods.
While other fish rely upon gills to breathe, lungfish also possess a pair of lung-like organs.
It lives in oxygen-starved, swampy environs of the Amazon and Parana-Paraguay River basins, and supplements the oxygen gotten from the water by breathing in oxygen from the air.

Q1: What is Genome sequencing?

Genome sequencing is the process of determining the DNA sequence of an organism’s genome. A genome is a complete set of DNA that contains all of the genes of an organism. Genome sequencing involves figuring out the order of bases in an organism’s entire genome.

Source: South American lungfish has largest genome of any animal