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Now in its third edition and supplemented with more online material, this book aims to make the'new'information-based (rather than gene-based) bioinformatics intelligible both to the'bio'people and the'info'people. Books on bioinformatics have traditionally served gene-hunters, and biologists who wish to construct family trees showing tidy lines of descent. While dealing extensively with the exciting topics of gene discovery and database-searching, such books have hardly considered genomes as information channels through which multiple forms and levels of information have passed through the generations. This “new bioinformatics” contrasts with the'old'gene-based bioinformatics that so preoccupies previous texts. Forms of information that we are familiar with (mental, textual) are related to forms with which we are less familiar (hereditary). The book extends a line of evolutionary thought that leads from the nineteenth century (Darwin, Butler, Romanes, Bateson), through the twentieth (Goldschmidt, White), and into the twenty first (the final works of the late Stephen Jay Gould). Long an area of controversy, diverging views may now be reconciled.

Although the phenomenon of lateral gene transfer has been known since the 1940's, it was the genomics era that has really revealed the extent and many facets of this evolutionary/genetic phenomenon. Even in the early 2000s with but a handful of genomes available it became clear that the nature of microorganisms is full of genetic exchange between lineages that are sometimes far apart. The years following this saw an explosion of genomic data, which shook the'tree of life'and also raised doubts about the most appropriate species concepts for prokaryotes. This book attempts to represent the many-fold contributions of LGT to the evolution of micro and, to an extent, macro-organisms by focusing on the areas where the Editor felt it had the largest impact: metabolic innovations and adaptations and speciation.

The impetus for this book arose out of my previous book, The Evolution of Life Histories (Roff, 1992). In that book I presented a single chapter on quanti­ tative genetic theory. However, as the book was concerned with the evolution of life histories and traits connected to this, the presence of quantitative genetic variation was an underlying theme throughout. Much of the focus was placed on optimality theory, for it is this approach that has proven to be extremely successful in the analysis of life history variation. But quantitative genetics cannot be ig­ nored, because there are some questions for which optimality approaches are inappropriate; for example, although optimality modeling can address the ques­ tion of the maintenance of phenotypic variation, it cannot say anything about genetic variation, on which further evolution clearly depends. The present book is, thus, a natural extension of the first. I have approached the problem not from the point of view of an animal or plant breeder but from that of one interested in understanding the evolution of quantitative traits in wild populations. The subject is large with a considerable body of theory: I generally present the assumptions underlying the analysis and the results, giving the relevant references for those interested in the intervening mathematics. My interest is in what quantitative genetics tells me about evolutionary processes; therefore, I have concentrated on areas of research most relevant to field studies.

genetics.'It is simply the appropriation of that term, very likely with insufficient knowledge and respect for its past usage. For that, the Editor alone is responsible and requests tolerance. He has, as far as he can tell, no intention or desire to use it for any historiographical purposes other than that just mentioned. Even more important, the decision to consider Muller together with Fisher, Haldane and Wright is also not original. Crow (1984) has already done so, arguing persua­ sively that Muller was'keenly interested in evolution and made sub­ stantial contributions to the development of the neo-Darwinian view.'Crow's reasons for considering these four figures together and the reasons discussed above are complementary. This book continues a historiographical choice he initiated; others will have to judge whether it is appropriate. The foregoing considerations were intended to show why Fisher, Haldane, Muller and Wright should be considered together in the history of theoretical evolutionary genetics. I By a welcome stroke of luck, from the point of view of the Editor, all four of these figures were born almost together, between 1889 and 1892, and almost exactly a century ago. It therefore seemed appropriate to use their birth cente­ naries to consider their work together. A conference was held at Boston University, on March 6, 1990, under the auspices of the Boston Center for the Philosophy and History of Science, to discuss their work. This book has emerged mainly from that conference.

Books on bioinformatics which began appearing in the mid 80s primarily served gene-hunters, and biologists who wished to construct family trees showing tidy lines of descent. Given the great pharmaceutical industry interest in genes, this trend has continued in most subsequent texts. These deal extensively with the exciting topic of gene discovery and searching databases, but hardly consider genomes as information channels through which multiple forms and levels of information, including genic information, have passed through the generations.

In the years since the publication of Susumu Ohno's 1970 landmark book Evolution by gene duplication tremendous advances have been made in molecular biology and especially in genomics. Studies of genome structure and function prerequisite to testing hypotheses of genome evolution were all but impossible until recent methodological advances. This book evaluates newly generated empirical evidence as it pertains to theories of genomic evolutionary patterns and processes. Tests of hypotheses using analyses of complete genomes, interpreted in a phylogenetic context, provide evidence regarding the relative importance of gene duplication. The alternative explanation is that the evolution of regulatory elements that control the expression of and interactions among genes has been a more important force in shaping evolutionary innovation. This collection of papers will be of interest to all academic and industry researchers working in the fields of molecular biology, biotechnology, genomics and genome centers.

James A. Shapiro proposes an important new paradigm for understanding biological evolution, the core organizing principle of biology. Shapiro introduces crucial new molecular evidence that tests the conventional scientific view of evolution based on the neo-Darwinian synthesis, shows why this view is inadequate to today's evidence, and presents a compelling alternative view of the evolutionary process that reflects the shift in life sciences towards a more information- and systems-based approach in Evolution: A View from the 21st Century. Shapiro integrates advances in symbiogenesis, epigenetics, and saltationism into a unified approach that views evolutionary change as an active cell process, regulated epigenetically and capable of making rapid large changes by horizontal DNA transfer, inter-specific hybridization, whole genome doubling, symbiogenesis, or massive genome restructuring. Evolution marshals extensive evidence in support of a fundamental reinterpretation of evolutionary processes, including more than 1,100 references to the scientific literature. Shapiro's work will generate extensive discussion throughout the biological community, and may significantly change your own thinking about how life has evolved. It also has major implications for evolutionary computation, information science, and the growing synthesis of the physical and biological sciences.

The study of Hox genes is crucial not only in exploring the enigma of homeosis but also in understanding normal development at the fundamental molecular level.'Hox Gene Expression'starts with the amazing discovery of the homeobox twenty-three years ago and follows the exciting path thereafter of a series of breakthroughs in Genetics, Development and Evolution. It deals with homeotic genes- their evolution, structure, normal and abnormal function. Researchers and graduate students in Biology and Medicine will benefit from this integrated overview of Hox gene activities.

`Why life?'Questions of this type were for a long time the prerogative of philosophers who left the `how'question to scientists. Nowadays, Darwin's successors no longer have any qualms about addressing the `why'as well as the `how'. Over a century ago, Darwin modestly admitted having'thrown some light on the origin of species - this mystery of mysteries'. Two major advances in the following decades helped biologists answer many of the questions he left unsolved. The first was the discovery of the laws of heredity, the second that of DNA. Both provided Darwinian theory with the foundations that were lacking and led to the all-embracing neo-Darwinian synthesis. Since then, Theodosius Dobzhansky's aphorism `nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution'has proven true more than once. This does not suit everyone, as evolutionist ideas have not lost their power to cause a scandal. Darwin toppled man from his pedestal. Evolutionary genetics - the subject of this book - sends the individual crashing. Considered until recently to be the target of selection and the focus of evolution, the individual has been usurped by the gene. The individual is nothing but the gene's avatar.