This story continues the adventures of the ferns in Nowhere Wood. The first part of the story is Climbing the walls.
The genome of the fern contains essential information that the fern needs to grow and make new cells. At different times the fern produces spores, sperm and eggs and the two forms of the plant. The genome contains information on the growth of each of these stages.
The information in the genome is the same in every cell of the fern because an identical copy of the genome is found inside the nuclei of all the cells of this fern at every stage of its life.
The genome is found in the nucleus of each cell.
The genome is divided between a number of chromosomes. The diagram shows the genome of the Adder’s tongue fern. It has about 1440 chromosomes. This is the largest number of chromosomes of any organism in the world!
Fern genomes are larger than the genomes of other organisms, because they contain the information the fern needs to grow spores, sperms and eggs as well as the two forms of plant.
The genome contains the secrets of how to be a fern and how to move forward in the adventure. This information has been copied and passed on to each generation of ferns, ever since the first ferns evolved about 390 million years ago.
Life is like a relay race: genetic information is passed on from one generation to the next in the genomes of sperms, eggs and other gametes.
These ferns are having risky and uncertain adventures in time as well as space. If the secret information is not passed on correctly, then the species may become extinct. History shows us that most species that have ever lived on Earth are now extinct.
- 1. Why do you think it is essential that the genetic information from parents to offspring is copied accurately?
- 2. Why do you think the fern genome is so large, compared with other types of plant?
