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E-book Evolutionary Genomics : Statistical and Computational Methods
The typical definition of the genome is often dualistic, referen-cing both structural features and its function to store and transmitbiological information [4]. For example, the US National Institutesof Health (NIH) uses the following definition: “A genome is anorganism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes. Eachgenome contains all of the information needed to build and main-tain that organism. In humans, a copy of the entire genome—morethan three billion DNA base pairs—is contained in all cells that havea nucleus.” This conception, as with many others, is structural withregard to physical features (viz., genes and DNA base pairs) andinformational with regard to its role in carrying out cellular func-tions (viz., to build and maintain the organism). Through increasedknowledge of genome diversity, the field has come to realize thatboth conceptions of the genome are sometimes insufficient [4]. Wenow understand that the physical structures of the genome can betransient and that the expression of information contained within agenome is often conditioned on non-genomic factors. The scienceof genome biology is entering a new era based on a deeper under-standing of the relationship between genotype and phenotype [5].
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