The Boston Globe, October 16th, 2006
GENETICS A bacteria that lives with less DNA than any other organism Scientists have found a cellular organism with less DNA than any known before. The organism, a bacteria called Carsonella ruddii, lives inside some insects. Its DNA is a mere 160,000 chemical bases long, one-third the size of the previous record holder, and orders of magnitude smaller than the DNA found in every human cell, which weighs in at about 3 billion bases long. The finding is significant because it shows that life can operate with surprisingly little DNA. Researchers think the bacteria may be in the process of becomi...
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