Chapter 11 - Macroevolution and the Genome

Abstract

This chapter provides a discussion of some important conceptual and empirical links between the lowest levels of evolutionary analysis (the genome and its components) and the highest (large-scale patterns in deep evolutionary time). The goal throughout this chapter is to provide an expansion of existing evolutionary theory and to build some much-needed bridges across traditionally disparate disciplines. The topics of genomics and evolutionary biology are deeply interconnected. The detailed study of complete genome sequences is best carried out in an evolutionarily comparative context, and in turn provides important new insights into evolutionary relationships. There are many ways of studying the mechanisms and outcomes of evolution, ranging from genetics and genomics at the lowest scales through to paleontology at the highest. As with life itself, evolutionary biology has passed through numerous major transitions that opened up new and previously inaccessible trajectories. The evolution concept first came approximately 150 years ago with Darwin's (1859) publication of his theory of natural selection. The (re)discovery of Mendelian genetics around the beginning of the 20th century marks another, as does the subsequent development of population genetics a few decades later. It is important to note that genomes are only one of many important levels of biological organization, and that genomic data are only useful when viewed in the context of morphological, cytological, developmental, physiological, and ecological information.