The complex corn genome — coming in at a hearty two billion base pairs (compared with the human genome's 2.9 billion base pairs)-- has been mapped by more than 150 researchers, who worked for years to decipher the grain's genetic code. (scientificamerican.com)
The corn genome actually has 12,000 more genes than humans do and manages to stuff them onto 10 chromosomes (as opposed to humans» 23). (scientificamerican.com)
«I think there are a lot of mini tour de forces in the corn genome that we can use for looking at human disease.» (scientificamerican.com)