"Frontmatter". In: Plant Genomics and Proteomics

S
UMMARY
The genome itself has a level of biological organization with its own phe-
notype forged by a complex evolutionary history. More importantly, there 
is an intimate relationship between the phenotype of the genome and the
phenotype of the organism. Variation in genome size can constrain, and
simultaneously be constrained by, the evolution of the organism in the 
environment in which it finds itself. The remarkable degree of genome 
plasticity may be necessary to provide new functions for plants. The 
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emerging picture of the molecular organization of complex plant genomes
is one of a mosaic with tracts of highly repetitive heterochromatin inter-
spersed with regions of transposons and of transcriptionally active genes. A
large proportion of the active genes may be clustered into gene-rich regions
that are themselves separated by tracts of complex transposons. The context
in which the genes exist, as well as the presence of multiple members of gene
families, must be included in the consideration of the overall control of gene
expression.
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