ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the evolution of genomes from the very origins of biochemical systems through to the present day. It looks at ideas regarding the RNA world, prior to the appearance of the first DNA molecules, and then examine how DNA genomes have gradually become more complex. The chapter examines the differences between the human and chimpanzee genomes in an attempt to identify the evolutionary changes that have occurred during the last 6 million years and which must, somehow, make people what they are. The most cursory examination of genome sequences provides ample evidence that many genes have arisen from duplication events. Segmental duplications are thought to play an important role in genome evolution by giving rise to gene duplicates and by placing duplicated genes under the control of new regulatory sequences. The chapter studies how the diversity of genome sequences in modern-day populations is being used as a tool in research and in biotechnology.
