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When considering the daunting complexity of eukaryotic genomes,some comfort can be found in the fact that the human genomemay contain only 30,000 to 40,000 genes. Moreover, growing evidencesuggests that genomes may be organized in such a way as to takeadvantage of space. A gene's location in the linear DNA sequenceand its position in the three-dimensional nucleus can both beimportant in its regulation. Contrary to prevailing notionsin this postgenomic era, the bacteriophage , a paragon of simplicity,may still have a few things to teach us with respect to thesefacets of nonrandom genomes.
1 Division of Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109, USA. 2 Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Note added in proof: A recent study has provided evidence forthe colocalization of coregulated genes on the same chromosome(35).
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: markg{at}fhcrc.org
, a paragon of simplicity, may still have a few things to teach us with respect to these facets of nonrandom genomes. 
