J. Craig Venter of the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Md., stresses that the Human Genome Project is but a single effort in the genome revolution now under way. Over the next 5 to 10 years, there's going to be 400,000 to 500,000 new genes discovered. This deluge of data should change molecular evolution from a fledgling enterprise into a sophisticated discipline. Most of the speculative trees of life drawn by today's molecular evolutionists stem from species differences in a single gene that encodes a subunit of a cellular organelle. The controversy over whether this gene's evolution is relevant to that of an entire species will become moot once dozens of complete genomes are available for comparison.
Genomes probably hold answers to some of life's fundamental mysteries.
They should settle, for instance, the question of how complex genes arose from simpler DNA sequences, an issue that lies at the heart of the origin of life. Finally, the genome revolution promises to alter biology's status among the sciences. The Manhattan Project's devastating success over Hiroshima and Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon reflect the preeminence of physics and engineering in the 20th century. Yet as the Superconducting Supercollider's failure to get funding and the international space station's struggles attest, those fields' heady days are over. Travis, J. 1996.