Metal-Absorbing Plants Could Make Mining Greener | A Tiny Fern's Gigantic Genome

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Jun 12, 2024

Learn about hyperaccumulators, plants evolving to absorb metals for greener mining. Explore a tiny fern with the largest genome ever discovered. Dive into phytomining research, genetic mechanisms of metal uptake, and potential eco-friendly solutions for extracting metals from soils.

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ANECDOTE

Tiny Fern, Massive Genome

Dr. Jaume Pellicer and colleagues discovered a tiny New Caledonian fern with the largest known genome.
The fern's genome is ~160.45 billion base pairs, about 50 times a human genome.

INSIGHT

Repetitive DNA Explains Size

Most of the fern's genome consists of repetitive 'giant DNA' not coding genes, so functional gene content is small.
Plants usually purge repetitive elements, so why some like this fern retain massive repeats remains an open question.

INSIGHT

Big Genomes Have Big Costs

Large genomes carry costs: higher nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorus) demand and slower cell division due to more DNA replication.
Those costs make giant genomes puzzling unless the environment permits coping with them.

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Plants called “hyperaccumulators” have evolved to absorb high levels of metals. Scientists want to harness them for greener metal mining. And, a little fern from New Caledonia is just a few inches tall, but its genome has 160.45 billion base pairs—50 times more DNA than a human.

How Metal-Absorbing Plants Could Make Mining Greener

Scientists are exploring a somewhat unusual green energy solution: mining metals from the earth using plants.

Typically, if soil has high levels of metal, plants will either die or do everything they can to avoid it. But, one group has taken a different path: evolve to be able to safely absorb large amounts of the metals. These special plants are called hyperaccumulators. And their ability to suck metals like nickel from the earth is called phytomining.

The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy announced in March up to $10 million in funding for phytomining research.

Ira talks with Dr. David McNear, professor of plant and soil sciences at the University of Kentucky, about these fascinating flora and their promise as a greener option to metal mining.

A Tiny Fern Has The Largest Genome Ever Discovered

Scientists just discovered the largest genome of any living thing on Earth, and it belongs to a small, unassuming fern called Tmesipteris oblanceolata. If you were to split open one of its cells and unwind the DNA that’s coiled up in the nucleus, it would stretch out more than 300 feet—taller than the Statue of Liberty.

Scientists reported the finding last week in the journal iScience. The fern is only a few inches tall and is found on the island of New Caledonia in the Southwest Pacific. Its DNA is made up of 160.45 billion base pairs—50 times more than the human genome.

This finding has left scientists scratching their heads, wondering how and why a fern ended up with so much DNA. Ira Flatow talks with co-lead author of this study Dr. Jaume Pellicer, evolutionary biologist at the Botanical Institute of Barcelona, about this research and why this fern’s DNA is so puzzling.

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