Question

Why is a genomic library larger than a cDNA library for a given organism?

Short answer

The genomic library is larger than that of cDNA library for particular organism because it contains genes and non-transcribed sequence. However, the cDNA library consists of only DNA sequences that are transcribed into mRNA.

Step-by-step solution

Introduction

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) libraries are made up of DNA fragments that were generated by scientists utilising genetic engineering techniques for gene cloning.

Genomic and complementary DNA (cDNA) libraries are the most common forms of libraries used to isolate particular DNAs.

Genomic library is larger than cDNA library

A genomic library contains all of an organism's DNA. It refers to the cloned collection of all DNA fragments from a single organism, including genes and non-transcribed sequences.

The cDNA library, on the other hand, contains cloned cDNA from a certain organism's total mRNA. This library is devoid of non-coding DNA and solely expresses a DNA's coding region.

As a result, the genomic library for a given organism is bigger than the cDNA library.