A cell of the bacterium Escherichia coli, a prokaryote, contains one chromosome with about 4.6 million base pairs of DNA comprising 4288 protein-encoding genes. A cell of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a eukaryote, contains about 12 million base pairs of DNA comprising 6268 genes, and this DNA is distributed over 16 distinct chromosomes.
Are you surprised that the chromosome of a prokaryote is larger than some of the chromosomes of a eukaryote? Explain your answer.