This book describes the dynamics of evolutionary change at the molecular level, the driving forces behind the evolutionary process, the effects of the various molecular mechanisms on the structure of genes, proteins, and genomes, the methodology involved in dealing with molecular data from an evolutionary perspective, and the logic of molecular hypothesis testing. The Second Edition incorporates newly acquired evolutionary insight from genome projects involving bacteria, plants, and animals, as well as analytical tools that have been developed and perfected in the last decade, and has been brought up to date in line with the many advances in genomics, protein engineering, computational biology, and bioinformatics.

The authors explain evolutionary phenomena at the molecular level in a way that can be understood without much prerequisite knowledge of molecular biology, evolution, or mathematics. Both mathematical and intuitive explanations are provided, and examples that support and clarify the many theoretical arguments and methodological discussions are included.