Prokaroytes do note have matching pairs of chromosomes?

[ipodtouch]

---

Members don't see this ad.

EK notes that prokaryotes have more difficult of a time fixing double strand breaks in DNA because they dont have matching chromosome pairs.

I was wondering, are prokaryotes usually diploid/haploid? Or do they just have a million identical circular DNA floating around? Are these even called chromosomes?

 

[Dasypus]

Generally, prokaryotes have only one copy of their single, circular chromosome. It's not really right to say that they're haploid, I don't believe, because haploid and diploid only apply to life stages of one species.

This is only generally true, though. Some prokaryotes have lots of copies of their chromosome hanging out.

Also, most prokaryotes have a bunch of plasmids in addition to their chromosome. Those are little rings of DNA, but they don't build the whole organism the way the chromosome does. They're more like footnotes to the plan.

 

[ipodtouch]

Wow just one copy?

I was taught that prokaryotes had several hundreds of chromosome copies.
Hmm....

 

[johnwandering]

.....nvm