Genome Size

There is a piece in Nature which has some interest. It is the determination of the genome size of the pine tree, Loblolly. This is a pine which may make it as far north as where I am in New Jersey. It is a bit strange in that it grow branches only on the side where there is strong sunlight.

Nature states:

A species of pine tree native to the southeastern United States has a genome with 23 billion base pairs, more than 7 times the length of the human genome....Another team, made up of many of the same researchers and led by Jill Wegrzyn at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, characterized around 50,000 of the genes and estimated that 82% of the loblolly genome is made from repetitive elements. This work, the first pine genome assembled so far, provides a foundation to study the biology of conifers, the authors say.

As a question to pose: How would a plot of gene length versus lifetime of species appear? Namely would say a Ginkgo have lots or excess base pairs or what? Just a thought.