The headline for this article is extremely misleading. Genome size has almost nothing to do with the environmental adaptations -- the American cockroach has ab

The headline for this article is extremely misleading. Genome size has almost nothing to do with the environmental adaptations -- the American cockroach has about the same number of protein coding genes as the German cockroach and termites. The extra DNA is in the introns. The American cockroach does have additional odorant and taste receptors, but those additional genes have very little effect on the genome size, because only a small fraction of the genome (<2%) codes for protein.