The Logic of Chance: The Nature and Origin of Biological Evolution

4. Genomics, systems biology, and universals of evolution: Genome evolution as a phenomenon of statistical physics

In the preceding chapter, I emphasized the relative evolutionary stability of individual genes, which contrasts with the dynamic character of genome evolution. If genes or evolutionary domains can be reasonably construed as “atomic units” of genome evolution, then genomes may be viewed as statistical ensembles of these units. We can extend this oversimplified but apparently sensible and potentially productive physical analogy. The genomes can be viewed as more closely resembling gases, or perhaps liquids, where interactions between molecules are variable and important, but weak compared to the intramolecular interactions that underlie ...