Impact of is on genome
evolution - The importance of time scale.
ISs have had an important impact on genome
structure and function. Several of these effects are considered in the
following sections. In this context it is useful to understand the time scales
involved in these processes since they are often confounded. Evolutionary time is used to compare species (106 years), historical time in comparisons within or between populations (102 - 104 years), variety
time in selection experiments (1 - 102 years), and laboratory time for ongoing events such
as experimental measurement of transposition frequencies or in biochemical
analyses (10-3 - 1 years) (Alan Schulman, pers. comm.). Thus a "burst" of transposition in evolutionary time is many orders of
magnitude longer than a "burst" of transposition in experimental biology.