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Information Storage and Neural Control 



THE DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACIDS (DNA) 

 Amount of DNA per Cell 



The amount of DNA per cell varies greatly from the simplest 

 to the most complex organisms. Some representative values 

 are shown in Table I. Mammals, reptiles and amphibians often 

 contain about six picograms of DNA per cell; but many fish 

 and birds contain only about a third of this amount. Bacteria and 

 fungi cells have about 1/100 the amount of DNA found in the 

 higher animals. Larger viruses such as vaccinia and T-even bac- 

 teriophage have about 1/10,000 the amount of DNA per particle 

 and the smallest viruses, such as bacteriophage 0X174 and the 

 Shope papilloma virus have one millionth the amount of DNA 

 per particle found in the cells of higher animals. 



TABLE I 



DNA Content Per Cell of Various Species 

 (All Values Expressed as Picograms DNA Per Cell or Virus Particle) 



