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Comment by Jiro | Hacker News Reader

Blech.

This is one of those cases where the genetic material is repeated multiple times inside the same "organism". It would be considered to be a filament made up of multiple cells, except that there isn't anything separating the individual cells, so it's technically "one cell".

It's like roping together 200 boats and claiming that you've created a mile long boat. You sort of did, but it's not really the first thing people think of when they see that phrase.

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But rope together 200 cars on a track and people will readily accept that it’s a mile long train.

True, but I guess for most people "a mile long train" sounds way less interesting than "a mile long car".

The equivalent claim would be a "mile long locomotive".

Are you saying that this is a multicellular bacterium? That might be even more spectacular. Although it also sounds a bit like this might be some new type of eukaryote.

Either way, it's not exactly blech.

Yeah, that Candidatus Thiomargarita magnifica is a real piece of shit.

It's a multiprocessor. The multiple available genes allow more expressiveness. Three genomes reacting to environmental changes exposes its resources 3 times as fast.

Or maybe the chromosomes are spatially optimal in a centimeter long rod.

Or maybe it's evolved to suppress the genes/proteins that would be excessive if it had 3 working copies being transcripted repeatedly.

> boat comparison

This made my day, thanks.

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