Thank you. That's fascinating. Is the weight a reflection of number of base pairs / genome size? If so, how is it easy to discriminate with that broad a range (49-164)? Or is that the range of all genera you tested?
On Wednesday, January 6, 2016 2:37 AM, Ben Zonneveld <ben.zonneveld@naturalis.nl> wrote:
I like to defend the taxonomists, although I am a genticist
If properly done new taxa are based on many characters.These can be
divided in morphological characters, DNA sequence characters and what I do
myself the amount of DNA per nucleus. I investigated all wild galanthus (
and many other genera)in that respect. They vary in the amount of nuclear
DNA from 49 to 164 pg DNA per nucleus. So it is easy to discriminate the
Galanthus species (humans have about 7 picogram)Yes there are hybrids.
These can be recognized because often also the parents are around. Moreover
they are often sterile. Lastly naming new taxa is just part of the job, no
extra money involved.
Ben
--
BJM Zonneveld
Naturalis, Herbarium section
Postbox 9517
Darwinweg 2, 2300RA Leiden
The Netherlands
Email: ben.zonneveld@naturalis.nl <Ben.Zonneveld@naturalis.nl>,
telf 071-7517228
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