Molecular evolution

Molecular evolution is the process of the genetic material in populations of organisms changing over time. It is the association of molecular biology, evolution and population genetics. The genetic material consists of DNA, long sequences of nucleotides in each individual organism. Because most heritable changes in visible traits are a result of changes in the DNA, molecular evolution must be seen as part of general evolution. The boundary between molecular and other aspects of evolution is not clearly defined. One inequivalence is that molecular evolution takes place also in DNA with no known function (so-called "junk DNA"). Therefore the DNA of a population may "evolve molecularly", while the phenotype of descendants remains constant.

Related Topics:
Population - Organism - Molecular biology - Evolution - Population genetics - DNA - Visible traits - Evolution - Junk DNA

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