Darwinian Detectives: Revealing the Natural History of Genes and GenomesBiology is often viewed today as a bipartisan field, with molecular level genetics guiding us into the future and natural history (including ecology, evolution, and conservation biology,) chaining us to a descriptive scientific past. In Darwinian Detectives, Norman Johnson bridges this divide, revealing how the tried and true tools of natural history make sense of the newest genomic discoveries. Molecular scientists exploring newly sequenced genomes have stumbled upon quite a few surprises, including that only one to ten percent of the genetic material of animals actually codes for genes. What does the remaining 90-99% of the genome do? Why do some organisms have a much lower genome size than their close relatives? What were the genetic changes that were associated with us becoming human? As molecular biologists uncover these and other new mysteries, evolutionary geneticists are searching for answers to such questions. Norman Johnson captures the excitement of the hunt for our own genetic history. Through lively anecdotes, he explores how researchers detect natural selection acting on genes and what this genetic information tells us about human origins. |
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Page x
... organisms that shouldn't exist, and genes that seem to defy reason. Though it doesn't figure in this slim book, I have devoted much of my life to the mystery of aging. The fact of aging has been known for millennia. The difficult ...
... organisms that shouldn't exist, and genes that seem to defy reason. Though it doesn't figure in this slim book, I have devoted much of my life to the mystery of aging. The fact of aging has been known for millennia. The difficult ...
Page xii
... organisms, an entity that geneticists call the genome. Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of Watson and Crick's unraveling of the structure of DNA, the DNA information contained in the human genome was fully ascertained in April ...
... organisms, an entity that geneticists call the genome. Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of Watson and Crick's unraveling of the structure of DNA, the DNA information contained in the human genome was fully ascertained in April ...
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... organisms. Why is this? And what does the to of the genome that does not encode for genes do? These questions have been only somewhat answered, and will require a deep understanding of molecular genetics as well as ...
... organisms. Why is this? And what does the to of the genome that does not encode for genes do? These questions have been only somewhat answered, and will require a deep understanding of molecular genetics as well as ...
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... organisms. For example, why do pufferfish have much smaller genomes than do their close relatives? The chapter also explores a recent hypothesis that many general features of the genomes of different organisms may be the result of a few ...
... organisms. For example, why do pufferfish have much smaller genomes than do their close relatives? The chapter also explores a recent hypothesis that many general features of the genomes of different organisms may be the result of a few ...
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Contents
Why Evolution Still Matters | 3 |
2 Why Intelligent Design Is Not Science | 17 |
Natural Selection | 37 |
Human Origins and Evolution | 83 |
Notes | 185 |
Glossary | 197 |
201 | |
213 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Africa amino acid balancing selection Behe billion nucleotides biology bonobos brain breeds changes chapter chimps chromosome clicks closest relatives colleagues complex correlated Darwin Darwinian deleterious detect disease divergence DNA sequences dogs domesticated effective population size effective population sizes estimate evidence evolutionary biologists evolutionary geneticists evolve exists females FOXP frequency function genes genetic drift genetic variants genome size haplotypes hemoglobin heterozygotes Homo homozygotes human genome human lineage humans and chimpanzees humans and Neanderthals hypothesis individuals insects intelligent design introns Kimura language less maize males mammals mitochondrial DNA mitochondrial Eve modern humans molecular evolution molecules mtDNA natural selection Neanderthals negative selection neutral theory nucleotides occurred organisms origins patterns plants polymorphism positive selection protein pufferfish recent common ancestor regulatory region replacement researchers result scientific scientists silent sites similar species teosinte traits transposable elements vertebrates virus Y chromosome Y-chromosome Y-chromosome Adam