Topic summary
Gene sequence
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Gene.
Modern synthesis and its successors
The development of the neutral theory of evolution by Motoo Kimura in the late 1960s led to the recognition that random genetic drift is a major player in evolution and that neutral theory should be the null hypothesis of molecular evolution. This led to the construction of phylogenetic trees and the development of the molecular clock, which is the basis of all dating techniques using DNA sequences. These techniques are not confined to molecular gene sequences but can be used on all DNA segments in the genome.