AP Biology Chapter 21 Genomes and Their Evolution Overview ? Reading the Leaves form the Tree of Life Scientists are now able to compare different species by comparing their DNA We have sequenced the full DNA of many different species now By comparing, we can: study the set of genes that control group defining characteristics Learn about the long evolutionary history of shared ancient genes and their products (by looking at the genome of more different species such as bacteria, fungi, etcs and comparing to animals/humans.) Genomics: The study of whole sets of genes and their interactions. Bioinformatics: a new field ? the application of computational methods to the storage and analysis of biological data.