ABSTRACT
Since the publication in 1977 of the first complete genome sequence, that of a simple bacteriophage, the field of comparative genomics has been of growing importance to evolutionary, biomedical and agricultural studies. With the advent of new sequencing technologies, advances in functional genomics, and more powerful informatics, the field is now poised for an unprecedented era of growth. Here, we provide a brief retrospective of the area and discuss emerging trends in comparative gonomics research.
All science is comparative. Throughout the ages, the very definition of any advancement in knowledge is the significance of contrasts between the familiar and the novel. The foundational scientific tenet, the null hypothesis, involves comparison of the null or known existing state to new results arising as a consequence of specific experimental manipulations. Although early naturalists categorized newly discovered specimens by fastidious comparisons to well-characterized species, they did not coin the term comparative taxonomy. Diverse groups of scientists, such as ecologists, astronomers, physicists, and physicians, all utilize the power of comparative analysis in their work. Yet, a growing group of molecular biologists, molecular evolutionary biologists, and bioinformatics scientists who work with large-scale genome-wide data sets have defined their particular area of expertise as comparative genomics. What warrants this special emphasis on the comparative?
