Tinkering with nature’s blueprints is all the rage today. From biochemists building drug-producing bacteria, to energy researchers developing biofuel crops, scientists are hard at work manipulating genes to better suit human aims.

Yet much about the design and control of genetic systems remains to be understood. In nature, genomes are organized into distinct patterns, with similar genes clustered on the same chromosome in higher organisms, or in sequences activated at the same time in bacteria. And there are plenty of practical reasons behind these arrangements, says Han Lim. “Evolution is based on function at the end of the day.”


»sciencematters.berkeley.edu/arch···ory3.php