Chapter 17.2, Problem 1R

Summary Introduction

To review:

The evolutionary reason for the characteristics of prokaryotic genome, that is, it contains a small genome, plasmid, and transposons.

Introduction:

Prokaryotes are single-celled microscopic organisms which can live in different environments. It lacks membrane-bound organelles and their deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is present in the cytoplasm in a structure called as a nucleoid. The genome of prokaryotes is small where its size ranges between 160, 000 and 12 million base pairs (bp). The whole set of genes is present in a single chromosome and it has extra-chromosomal DNA called plasmid which can self-replicate. The prokaryotic genome is compact which contains only protein-coding genes or exons and introns or noncoding regions are absent.