Marine biology has always played an
important role in biological research,
being at the origin of many key
advances. To a certain extent, the
influence of marine biology on the
biological sciences was overshadowed
over a period of several years by the
remarkable advances that were made using
powerful model organisms from
terrestrial environments. This situation
is now changing again, however, due
primarily to spectacular developments in
genomic methodologies that have
significantly accelerated research in a
broad spectrum of marine biology
disciplines ranging from biodiversity to
developmental biology to biotechnology.
The data generated by marine genomics
projects have had an impact on questions
as diverse as understanding planetary
geochemical cycles, the impact of
climate change on marine fauna and
flora, the functioning of marine
ecosystems, the discovery of new
organisms and novel biomolecules, and
investigation of the evolution of animal
developmental complexity.
This book represents the first attempt
to document how genomic technologies are
revolutionising these diverse domains of
marine biology. Each chapter of this
book looks at how these technologies are
being employed in a specific domain of
marine research and provides a summary
of the major results obtained to date.
The book as a whole provides an overview
of marine genomics as a discipline and
represents an ideal starting point for
exploring this rapidly developing
domain.