We already knew that the genomes of lungfish are huge, but how gigantic they really are and what can be learned from them was not clear until now. Accordingly, the sequencing of the lungfish genomes was very labor-intensive and complicated from both a technical and a bioinformatic perspective.

However, an international research team led by Konstanz biologist Axel Meyer and Würzburg biochemist Manfred Schartl has now succeeded in fully sequencing the genome of the South American lungfish and that of a member of the African lineage. The previously largest genome sequence of the Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus) had already been sequenced by the same team. The findings of their latest research were published in the journal Nature.

The genetic material of the South American lungfish in particular breaks all records for size: "With over 90 gigabases (in other words, 90 billion bases), the DNA of the South American species is the largest of all animal genomes and more than twice as large as the genome of the previous record holder, the Australian lungfish. 18 of the 19 chromosomes of the South American lungfish are each individually larger than the entire human genome with its almost 3 billion bases," says Meyer.