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. 2015 Jun 11;13(6):e1002168.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002168. eCollection 2015 Jun.

An Estimate of the Total DNA in the Biosphere

Hanna K E Landenmark  1 , Duncan H Forgan  1 , Charles S Cockell  1
Affiliations

An Estimate of the Total DNA in the Biosphere

Hanna K E Landenmark et al. PLoS Biol. .

Abstract

Modern whole-organism genome analysis, in combination with biomass estimates, allows us to estimate a lower bound on the total information content in the biosphere: 5.3 × 1031 (±3.6 × 1031) megabases (Mb) of DNA. Given conservative estimates regarding DNA transcription rates, this information content suggests biosphere processing speeds exceeding yottaNOPS values (1024 Nucleotide Operations Per Second). Although prokaryotes evolved at least 3 billion years before plants and animals, we find that the information content of prokaryotes is similar to plants and animals at the present day. This information-based approach offers a new way to quantify anthropogenic and natural processes in the biosphere and its information diversity over time.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Storing the total amount of information encoded in DNA in the biosphere, 5.3 × 1031 megabases (Mb), would require approximately 1021 supercomputers with the average storage capacity of the world’s four most powerful supercomputers.
Image credit: Globe from NASA, Wikimedia Commons; Composite Fig. 1 created by David Hammett.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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