The Origins of Theoretical Population Genetics

The Origins of Theoretical Population Genetics PDF Author: William B. Provine
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022678892X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
Tracing the development of population genetics through the writings of such luminaries as Darwin, Galton, Pearson, Fisher, Haldane, and Wright, William B. Provine sheds light on this complex field as well as its bearing on other branches of biology.

Introduction to Theoretical Population Genetics

Introduction to Theoretical Population Genetics PDF Author: Thomas Nagylaki
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 364276214X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 381

Book Description
This book covers those areas of theoretical population genetics that can be investigated rigorously by elementary mathematical methods. I have tried to formulate the various models fairly generally and to state the biological as sumptions quite explicitly. I hope the choice and treatment of topics will en able the reader to understand and evaluate detailed analyses of many specific models and applications in the literature. Models in population genetics are highly idealized, often even over idealized, and their connection with observation is frequently remote. Further more, it is not practicable to measure the parameters and variables in these models with high accuracy. These regrettable circumstances amply justify the use of appropriate, lucid, and rigorous approximations in the analysis of our models, and such approximations are often illuminating even when exact solu tions are available. However, our empirical and theoretical limitations justify neither opaque, incomplete formulations nor unconvincing, inadequate analy ses, for these may produce uninterpretable, misleading, or erroneous results. Intuition is a principal source of ideas for the construction and investigation of models, but it can replace neither clear formulation nor careful analysis. Fisher (1930; 1958, pp. x, 23-24, 38) not only espoused similar ideas, but he recognized also that our concepts of intuition and rigor must evolve in time. The book is neither a review of the literature nor a compendium of results. The material is almost entirely self-contained. The first eight chapters are a thoroughly revised and greatly extended version of my published lecture notes (Nagylaki, 1977a).

Population Genetics and Microevolutionary Theory

Population Genetics and Microevolutionary Theory PDF Author: Alan R. Templeton
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470047216
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 720

Book Description
The advances made possible by the development of molecular techniques have in recent years revolutionized quantitative genetics and its relevance for population genetics. Population Genetics and Microevolutionary Theory takes a modern approach to population genetics, incorporating modern molecular biology, species-level evolutionary biology, and a thorough acknowledgment of quantitative genetics as the theoretical basis for population genetics. Logically organized into three main sections on population structure and history, genotype-phenotype interactions, and selection/adaptation Extensive use of real examples to illustrate concepts Written in a clear and accessible manner and devoid of complex mathematical equations Includes the author's introduction to background material as well as a conclusion for a handy overview of the field and its modern applications Each chapter ends with a set of review questions and answers Offers helpful general references and Internet links

Modern Developments in Theoretical Population Genetics

Modern Developments in Theoretical Population Genetics PDF Author: Montgomery Slatkin
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780198599630
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
This book contains chapters by leading population genetics that summarize many of the recent developments in population genetics theory and its application to genetic data. The book was inspired by a meeting in honour of the late French population geneticist, Gustave Malecot, held at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, France, in the summer of 1999. Malecot was, along with R.A. Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane, and S. Wright, among the founders of theoretical population genetics. The meeting demonstrated both the great interest in Malecot's work and its relevance to the recent development of the theory of coalescents and the application of that theory to genetic variation observed at the level of DNA sequence. The introductory papers in the book review Malecot's life and his contributions to the theory of population genetics. Later chapters present recent developments in population genetics with particular emphasis on the theory of coalescents. They include discussions of methods for inferring past changes in population size and patterns of genetic exchange, for inferring the ages of individual mutations, and for analysing the relationships among closely linked genes.

Theoretical Aspects of Population Genetics. (MPB-4), Volume 4

Theoretical Aspects of Population Genetics. (MPB-4), Volume 4 PDF Author: Motoo Kimura
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691210098
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Book Description
To show the importance of stochastic processes in the change of gene frequencies, the authors discuss topics ranging from molecular evolution to two-locus problems in terms of diffusion models. Throughout their discussion, they come to grips with one of the most challenging problems in population genetics--the ways in which genetic variability is maintained in Mendelian populations. R.A. Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane, and Sewall Wright, in pioneering works, confirmed the usefulness of mathematical theory in population genetics. The synthesis their work achieved is recognized today as mathematical genetics, that branch of genetics whose aim is to investigate the laws governing the genetic structure of natural populations and, consequently, to clarify the mechanisms of evolution. For the benefit of population geneticists without advanced mathematical training, Professors Kimura and Ohta use verbal description rather than mathematical symbolism wherever practicable. A mathematical appendix is included.

Evolution

Evolution PDF Author: Sewall Wright
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226910536
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 664

Book Description
This volume emphasizes the period before 1950. During this period Wright thought of himself primarily as an experimental physiological geneticist rather than as a theoretical population geneticist.

Population Genetics, Molecular Evolution, and the Neutral Theory

Population Genetics, Molecular Evolution, and the Neutral Theory PDF Author: Motoo Kimura
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226435633
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 736

Book Description
One of this century's leading evolutionary biologists, Motoo Kimura revolutionized the field with his random drift theory of molecular evolution—the neutral theory—and his groundbreaking theoretical work in population genetics. This volume collects 57 of Kimura's most important papers and covers forty years of his diverse and original contributions to our understanding of how genetic variation affects evolutionary change. Kimura's neutral theory, first presented in 1968, challenged the notion that natural selection was the sole directive force in evolution. Arguing that mutations and random drift account for variations at the level of DNA and amino acids, Kimura advanced a theory of evolutionary change that was strongly challenged at first and that eventually earned the respect and interest of evolutionary biologists throughout the world. This volume includes the seminal papers on the neutral theory, as well as many others that cover such topics as population structure, variable selection intensity, the genetics of quantitative characters, inbreeding systems, and reversibility of changes by random drift. Background essays by Naoyuki Takahata examine Kimura's work in relation to its effects and recent developments in each area.

Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology

Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology PDF Author: William B. Provine
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226684734
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 566

Book Description
"Provine's thorough and thoroughly admirable examination of Wright's life and influence, which is accompanied by a very useful collection of Wright's papers on evolution, is the best we have for any recent figure in evolutionary biology."—Joe Felsenstein, Nature "In Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology . . . Provine has produced an intellectual biography which serves to chart in considerable detail both the life and work of one man and the history of evolutionary theory in the middle half of this century. Provine is admirably suited to his task. . . . The resulting book is clearly a labour of love which will be of great interest to those who have a mature interest in the history of evolutionary theory."-John Durant, ;ITimes Higher Education Supplement;X

The Founders of Evolutionary Genetics

The Founders of Evolutionary Genetics PDF Author: S. Sarkar
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401128561
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
genetics. " It is simply the appropriation of that term, very likely with insufficient knowledge and respect for its past usage. For that, the Editor alone is responsible and requests tolerance. He has, as far as he can tell, no intention or desire to use it for any historiographical purposes other than that just mentioned. Even more important, the decision to consider Muller together with Fisher, Haldane and Wright is also not original. Crow (1984) has already done so, arguing persua sively that Muller was "keenly interested in evolution and made sub stantial contributions to the development of the neo-Darwinian view. " Crow's reasons for considering these four figures together and the reasons discussed above are complementary. This book continues a historiographical choice he initiated; others will have to judge whether it is appropriate. The foregoing considerations were intended to show why Fisher, Haldane, Muller and Wright should be considered together in the history of theoretical evolutionary genetics. I By a welcome stroke of luck, from the point of view of the Editor, all four of these figures were born almost together, between 1889 and 1892, and almost exactly a century ago. It therefore seemed appropriate to use their birth cente naries to consider their work together. A conference was held at Boston University, on March 6, 1990, under the auspices of the Boston Center for the Philosophy and History of Science, to discuss their work. This book has emerged mainly from that conference.
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