Inset: GFAJ-1, Mono LakeNASA, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Arsenic-based life
Species: GFAJ-1
Genome Size: 3.5 million base pairs
Interesting fact: The bacteria made waves last year when researcher Felisa Wolfe-Simon and colleagues suggested the bacteria not only lived in arsenic-rich environment, it integrated the potentially toxic element into its DNA in lieu of phosphorus. Other scientists were highly skeptical. The new genome can’t settle the debate, although the bacteria have fewer arsenic-tolerating genes than those found in garden variety Escherichia coli. Data mining and modeling will likely be needed to sort out what most of the other genes in the genome do.
Genbank: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Traces/wgs/?val=AHBC01
Enter the monarch
Species: Danaus plexippus
Genome Size: 273 million base pairs
Interesting fact: The sequence, the first of any butterfly species, may hold clues to how the monarch ...
