Question

Is the number of genes in an organism's genome an accurate predictor of the organism's complexity? Explain

Answer 1

The number of genes in an organisms genome is not an accurate predictor of the Organisms complexity.

Usually according to our view more number of genes should be required to make an organism more complex. But in actual this is not the case. For Eg, Humans (Homo sapiens) has approximately 20,000 genes while Mouse (Mus musculus) has 22,000 genes. And to our surprise the much simpler protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila has 27,000 genes. The rice (Oryza sativa) and corn (Zea mays) has approximately 45,000 genes.This clearly depicts that the number of genes in an organism's genome is not an accurate predictor of its complexity.

This can be also explained by the fact that, more complex organisms rather than having more number of genes they are provided with a large amount of non coding sequences of DNA.