Comparative genomics and the evolution of prokaryotes

Althoughbiologists have long recognized the importance of studying evolution to understand the organization of living organisms, onlywith thedevelopment of genomics have evolutionary studies become part of their routine toolkit. Placing genomes into an evolutionary framework has proved useful for understanding the functioning of organisms. It has also substantially increased under-standing of the processes by which genomes evolve and led to a re-evaluation of our representation of the diversity and the history of life. In this review, we present some of the most important recent advances and prom-ising leads in thefieldofmicrobial evolutionarygenomics. Genomics: a new era for molecular evolution The science of molecular evolution is in its golden age. The dawning era of genomics provides invaluable informatio