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The field of genomics is expanding rapidly, yet the meanings of the word ‘genome’ have yet to be conceptualized in explicit, coherent and useful frameworks. We develop and apply an evolutionary conceptualization of the genome, which represents a logical extension of the evolutionary definition of a gene developed by George C. Williams. An evolutionary genome thus represents a set of genetic material, in a lineage, that due to common interests tends to favour the same or similar phenotypes. This conceptualization provides novel perspectives on genome functions, boundaries and evolution, which should help to guide theoretical and empirical genomics research.

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