Science · 1979 · 49 citations · 16 references
Life SciencesMicrobiologyMolecular BiologyComparative GenomicsGenome EvolutionGenomicsArchaeal GeneticsMicrobial Genome StructureMicrobial PhylogeneticsMicrobial PhylogenyMolecular Evolution In MicrobesMolecular PhylogenyArchaeal Genome EvolutionArchaeal Genome OrganizationDna Genome OrganizationEscherichia ColiMethanotrophic Bacteria
The organism Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum, an archaebacterium, is envolutionarily very distant from both traditional prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Its genome (DNA) has physical characteristics typical of most prokaryotes except that it is quite small (about 10(9) daltons, less than half the size of the genome of Escherichia coli) and contains a significant amount (6 percent) DNA which renatures extremely rapidly.
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