Recent studies yielded a first direct estimate of the genome-wide rate of gene duplication in C. elegans , the first multicellular eukaryote for which such as estimate became available. The gene duplication rate in C. elegans is on the order of ______ duplications/gene/generation, that is, in a population of 10 million worms, one will have a gene duplication per generation. This rate is two orders of magnitude greater than the spontaneous rate of point mutation per nucleotide site in this species.