Biological complexity is built upon molecular components that underlie all biological function. Decades of careful work in genetics, together with the recent revolution in genomics, has helped to identify many of the central players in these processes. However, two rather large questions remain: (1) how do these components interact with one another to generate an entire organism and (2) how does the entire system of components and interactions evolve through time? This award supports the production of a book that addresses these questions by focusing on the evolution of genetic architecture, synthesizing historical views of quantitative genetics and molecular evolution with recent information on the structure of genetic systems to provide a perspective on our current state of knowledge and a prospective for future research.
This work will further our understanding of the genetic basis of the complex traits that characterize all organisms, but which are also becoming a prominent focus of research in agriculture, biomedicine, and human health. Given the tremendous amounts of genetic information currently available, now is an appropriate time for a synthesis that will identify existing strengths and establish future research priorities. This book is intended to be widely accessible to biologists at all levels and will thus be useful for both researchers and students alike.
