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Abstract:
Genes can evolve via duplication and divergence mechanisms, but
also de novo out of non-coding intergenic sequences. This latter mechanism has only
recently become fully appreciated, while the former mechanism was an almost exclusive
dogma for quite some time. This essay explores the history of this development:
why a view developed, with the alternative hardly being explored. Because of the prevailing
view, an important aspect of the nature of genes and their evolutionary origin
escaped our attention. Evidence is now rapidly accumulating that de novo evolution is
a very active mechanism for generating novelty in the
