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The question of whether the evolution of large and complex genomes in complex multicellular organisms is due to natural selection or simply a function of chance has been the subject of considerable debate. In November 21 Science, Michael Lynch and John Conery at Indiana University argue that the inclusion of intragenic spacers—introns—and transposons, coupled with the increase in gene number associated with genomes of multicellular animals and plants, were not essential for adaptive phenotypic diversification during eukaryotic evolution, but are the result of orders-of-magnitude reductions in population size. This process magnified random genetic drift and prevented “purifying” natural selection from removing them (Science, 302:1401-1404, November 21, 2003).
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20031124/03
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