Bøger i Evolutionary Studies serien

This book aims to understand biological evolution through a physical approach, focusing on the macroscopic aspects of the biological genome. Readers will discover the connection between genomic information and the harmony of biological systems, a relationship that remains elusive to many researchers in biological sciences.The most common approach to understanding living organisms with physics is to begin with a single molecule of an organism. In contrast to this bottom-up approach, building from each molecule to the whole, this book takes a coarse-grained approach at the amino acid level to physically understand the macroscopic aspects of the organism. The book presents a system developed by the authors to predict membrane proteins with high accuracy using only physical parameters. Another distinctive perspective of this book is that it proposes the idea of a physical mechanism, other than natural selection, that orchestrates the emergence of order from random processes.The study of macroscopic aspects of living organisms based on this concept has parallels with thermostatistical mechanics for states of matter. Just as random processes create order in matter, there are physical random processes that form order in living organisms. This analogy is the central theme of the book.Using terms and analogies familiar to physicists, the book bridges the gap between biological and physical sciences. The book focuses on simple principles and is aimed primarily at researchers. While the content of this book is at the boundary area of biophysics, soft matter physics and bioinformatics, it will also be of interest to researchers and graduate students working on any biological topics.

This two-volume set provides a general overview of the evolution of the human genome; The first volume overviews the human genome with descriptions of important gene groups. This second volume provides up-to-date, concise yet ample knowledge on the genome evolution of modern humans. It comprises twelve chapters divided into two parts discussing "Non-neutral Evolution on Human Genes" (Part I) and "Evolution of Modern Human Populations" (Part II.)The most significant feature of this book is the continent-wise discussion of modern human dispersal using human genomic data in Part II. Recent results such as introgression of paleogenomes to modern humans, new methods such as computer simulation of global human dispersals, and new information on genes for humanness will be of particular interest to the readers. Since the euchromatin regions of the human genome was sequenced in 2003, a huge number of research papers were published on modern human evolution for a variety of populations. It is now time to summarize these achievements.This book stands out as the most comprehensive book on the modern human evolution, focusing on genomic points of view with a broad scope. Primary target audiences are researchers and graduate students in evolutionary biology.

This book reviews the human genome from an evolutionary perspective. No such book has ever been published before, although there are many books on human genomes. There are two parts in this book: Overview of the Human Genome (Part I) and The Human Genome Viewed through Genes (Part II). In Part I, after a brief review of human evolution and the human genome (by Naruya Saitou), chapters on rubbish or junk DNA (by Dan Graur), GC content heterogeneity (by Satoshi Oota), protein coding and RNA coding genes (by Tadashi Imanishi), duplicated genes (by Takashi Kitano), recombinations (by Montanucci and Bertranpetit), and copy number variations including microsatellites (by Naoko Takezaki) are discussed. Readers can obtain various new insights on the human genome from this part. In Part II, genes in X and Y chromosomes (by Yoko Satta and others), HLA genes (by Timothy A. Jinam), opsin genes (by Shoji Kawamura and Amanda D. Melin), genes related to phenotypic variations (by Ryosuke Kimura), transcription factors (by Mahoko Takahashi and So Nakagawa), diabetes-related genes (by Ituro Inoue), disease genes in general (by Ituro Inoue and Hirofumi Nakaoka), and microbial genomes (by Chaochun Wei) are discussed. The human genome sequences were determined in 2004, and after more than 10 years we are now beginning to understand the human genome from an evolutionary point of view. This book furnishes readers with a good summary of current research in the field.

This book reviews the human genome from an evolutionary perspective. No such book has ever been published before, although there are many books on human genomes. There are two parts in this book: Overview of the Human Genome (Part I) and The Human Genome Viewed through Genes (Part II). In Part I, after a brief review of human evolution and the human genome (by Naruya Saitou), chapters on rubbish or junk DNA (by Dan Graur), GC content heterogeneity (by Satoshi Oota), protein coding and RNA coding genes (by Tadashi Imanishi), duplicated genes (by Takashi Kitano), recombinations (by Montanucci and Bertranpetit), and copy number variations including microsatellites (by Naoko Takezaki) are discussed. Readers can obtain various new insights on the human genome from this part. In Part II, genes in X and Y chromosomes (by Yoko Satta and others), HLA genes (by Timothy A. Jinam), opsin genes (by Shoji Kawamura and Amanda D. Melin), genes related to phenotypic variations (by RyosukeKimura), transcription factors (by Mahoko Takahashi and So Nakagawa), diabetes-related genes (by Ituro Inoue), disease genes in general (by Ituro Inoue and Hirofumi Nakaoka), and microbial genomes (by Chaochun Wei) are discussed. The human genome sequences were determined in 2004, and after more than 10 years we are now beginning to understand the human genome from an evolutionary point of view. This book furnishes readers with a good summary of current research in the field.