A jumping off point

摘要

The field of evolutionary genetics is itself in the midst of astonishingly rapid evolution. For decades limited largely to theoretical considerations and a gene-by-gene focus, the field blossomed after the first genome was sequenced in 1995. Since then, researchers have been able to pose new types of questions and pursue the answers with experiments barely imaginable a generation ago. Armed with hundreds of sequenced genomes, today's evolutionary geneticists tackle problems as diverse as tracing the origins of infectious diseases, explaining rampant obesity and conserving endangered species. The field actually embraces two research areas: how genes underlie evolutionary processes, and how genes and genomes themselves evolve.