Genomania! Book-a-rama!

Michael Lynch has a new text book coming out next month. It's called The Origins of Genome Architecture and is published by sinauer and Associates (who also have some other great science titles). Briefly:

Under Lynch’s hypothesis, the genome-wide repatterning of eukaryotic gene structure, which resulted primarily from nonadaptive processes, provided an entirely novel resource from which natural selection could secondarily build new forms of organismal complexity.

By nonadaptive processes I think they are refereing to drift and mutation and how these two random processes interact to provide the material for Natural Selection.

An important point to keep in mind when thinking about Natural Selection is that it is at least a two-step process. The first, random stage (where drift and mutation come into play) is where all the variation is generated that in the second, nonrandom stage are eliminated (i.e. survival of the fittest). I look forward to a treatment of organismal complexity with regards to drift and mutation.

You can get a feel for what is to come with a recent review in Science: Mutation Pressure and the Evolution of Organelle Genomic Architecture.

Another book that I want to try and tackle soon is West-Eberhard's Developmental Plasticity and Evolution. Although I have heard great things about it, it doesn't seem to be a very accessable (i.e. easy to get into) book.

And also, a potentially interesting textbook on Evolution by CSHL comes out this summer, but who know if it offers anything about what is already available (but the webpage sure is nice).