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The largest known genome belongs to a tiny fern

The plant can fit in your hand, but its genome is over 50 times the size of humans’

Several ferns with forest in the background

Tmesipteris oblanceolata (the small green plants), one of six fork fern species from New Caledonia assessed in a new study, has a record-breaking genome that contains 160 billion bases.

Pol Fernandez

By Jake Buehler

Big things can sometimes come in small packages. 

A small fern has broken the record for the largest genome yet known, researchers report May 31 in iScience.