1928 – 2000
Susumu Ohno (1928–2000) was a Japanese-American geneticist and evolutionary biologist whose theoretical work fundamentally reshaped the study of genome evolution. He is best known for his 1970 monograph proposing that gene duplication is the primary driver of evolutionary novelty and innovation. He also introduced the widely influential concept of 'junk DNA' to describe non-coding genomic sequences.
Proposed the gene duplication theory of evolution in 'Evolution by Gene Duplication' (1970)
Coined the term 'junk DNA' for non-coding genomic sequences
Developed the 2R hypothesis — two rounds of whole-genome duplication in early vertebrate evolution
Demonstrated that multigene families arise through successive duplication events
Contributed foundational theory to comparative genomics and molecular evolution