This volume in the Monographs in Evolutionary Biology series addresses issues that are part of an emerging area of research loosely called "mo­ lecular evolution.  Meer

Ecological and evolutionary genetics span many disciplines and virtually all levels of biological investigation, from the genetic information itself to the principles governing the complex organization of living things.  Meer

It is my hope that this collection of reviews can be profitably read by all who are interested in evolutionary biology. However, I would like to specifically target it for two disparate groups of biologists seldom men­ tioned in the same sentence, classical ichthyologists and molecular biologists.  Meer

George H. F. Nuttall pioneered the study of phylogeny through the ge­ netically encoded sequence structures of proteins. His classic monograph, Blood Immllnity and Blood Relationship, was published in 1904.  Meer

The microorganisms present on the earth today possess a vast range of metabolic activities and are often able to demonstrate their surprising versatility by gaining both new enzyme activities and new metabolic path­ ways through mutations.  Meer