Editorial |
Editorial
There has never been a more exciting time for the Journal of Heredity. With the ability to amplify fragments of DNA from almost any individual organism and to assemble the complete sequence of even the most complex genomes, the principles of inheritance are now integral to nearly all disciplines of biology. Over nearly 100 years of continuous publication, the Journal has both promoted and reflected the sea change in our application and understanding of genetics. In its early years, the focus was on the practical application of the "new" science of heredity, including as a frontispiece of the first issue portraits of both Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel. Now, the Journal is committed to publishing outstanding research across the full range of subject areas relevant to organismal genetics, including gene mapping and genomics; gene action, regulation, and transmission; bioinformatics and computational genetics; molecular selection and adaptation; quantitative genetics and Mendelian inheritance; reproductive strategies and kinship analysis; molecular systematics and phylogenetics; population structure and phylogeography; and conservation genetics and biodiversity.Since taking over as editor in chief from Steve O'Brien in August of 2007, I have been astonished by the diversity and quality of manuscripts submitted to the Journal. In this issue alone, you will find descriptions of the kinship patterns among African cheetahs, forces of selection acting on trinucleotide repeats in maize, and the influence of isolation on the diversity of the major histocompatibility complex of fin whales in the Gulf of California. Over the next year, we look forward to publishing special issues from the recent AGA Annual Symposium on Mechanisms of Genome Evolution and the upcoming AGA-sponsored meeting on Evolution of Sex and Recombination, as well as to a second edition of Advances in Canine and Feline Genomics planned for early 2009.
Providing for this breadth, while maintaining high standards across each discipline, is one of the distinguishing features of the Journal and one of the ongoing challenges for the editorial board and the editorial office. In meeting this challenge, I am fortunate to have the continued guidance of Steve as advisory editor, the capable assistance of Anjanette Baker as managing editor, and the support of a remarkable team of Associate Editors. Working with Oxford University Press, we have recently taken an important step in maintaining the quality of the Journal and improving the efficiency of the review process. As of 2 January 2008, the Journal of Heredity moves to online submission through Manuscript Central. This will expedite manuscript submission and review while preserving the current structure of the review process, allowing associate editors to communicate more efficiently with authors before making a final recommendation to the editorial office. Many of you will have already received a notice providing you with a user account for Manuscript Central, giving you immediate access to the site for submission or review of manuscripts.
I would like to thank the Council of the AGA for the privilege to contribute to the study of organismal genetics and evolutionary diversity as editor of the Journal of Heredity at this critical point in human history. It is ironic that with the dawning of the era of genomics comes a growing concern that dusk is falling for many endangered species and ecosystems. The Journal of Heredity provides an important forum to promote progress in describing the details of genome structure, as well as to document natural patterns of organismal genetic diversity and, if possible, provide scientific guidance to mitigate threats to the loss of this diversity. By accommodating this continuum of perspectives, the Journal serves Darwin's vision of evolution as the unifying principle of biology.
"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."The Origin of Species, 1st ed., 1859.
Scott Baker
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