From the graphic below, we can conclude that the rate of evolutionary change is not constant but occurs at varying rates across individual protein families. When we consider the entire genome of any organism of interest to us, we know that within the noncoding regions of the genome, there will also be some variability in the rate of observed evolutionary change relative to what is observed in the coding region of the genome. Explain why there is a disparity in the rate of observed change in the regulatory regions of the genome compared to the coding region of the genome and why the rate of change is slower in the regulatory regions. How does this disparity impact gene expression and function? Mammals/reptiles (300 MY) higher vertebrates/fish (400 MY) birds/reptiles (240 MY) carp/lamprey (500 MY) vertebrates/insects (600 MY) plants/animals (1200 MY) 220 200 residues (m) 180 100 160 140 changes per 120 acid 100 amino 80 Fibrinopeptides 60 corrected 1.1 MY Cytochrome c 40 20 MY 20 0 1 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 Millions of years since divergence

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