Amount of DNA in each worm

Model Organism: Worms Scientific Discussion
1

Hi,

I was just wondering how much DNA there is in a single adult worm.

2

I make it about 0.65ng,

based upon the size of the genome (~100Mbp), number of adult hermaphrodite cells (~3000) and the average mass of a bp of DNA (~675).

Steve

3

It might really be a little bit more.

Many of the nuclei in the young adult hermaphrodite gonad are post S phase meiotic and thus have 4 X haploid DNA content. I think about 300 on each arm of the gonad. In addition some adult cells are polyploid and there are 600 haploid sperm. Does not make much difference but pushes the estimate closer to 1.0 ng. I figure 1000 adults for a micro gram… plenty to do whole genome sequencing!