Selection in Natural Populations

by Mitton, Jeffry B.

• ISBN13: 9780195137866
• ISBN10: 0195137868
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-23
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In 1974, Richard Lewontin published The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change , focusing enormous attention on protein variation as both a model of underlying genetic variation and a level of selection itself. In the twenty years since, scientific research has been shifted by the power of molecular biological techniques to explore the nature of variation directly at the DNA and gene levels. The "protein chapter" is coming to a close. In this book, Jeff Mitton explains the questions that geneticists hoped to answer by studying protein variation. He reviews the extensive literature on protein variation, describes the successes and failures of the research program, and evaluates the results of a rich and controversial body of research. The laboratory and field studies using protein polymorphisms revealed dynamic interactions among genotypes, fitness differentials, and fluctuating environmental conditions, and inadvertently wedded the fields of physiological ecology and population biology. Mitton's book is a useful analysis for all scientists interested in the genetic structure and evolution of populations.

Table of Contents

Natural Selection, Fitness Determination, and Molecular Variation

Classes of Abundant Genetic Variation

Environmental Heterogeneity and Enzyme Polymorphism

The Impact of a Single Gene

Patterns of Variation among Loci

The Axis of Individual Heterozygosity: Theory

The Axis of Individual Heterozygosity: Empirical Data

Female Choice and Male Fitness

Patterns among Species

The Sisyphean Cycle

Comments on Natural Selection

Average Heterozygosity and Genetic Distance among Species

Pascal Program for the Simulation of the Evolution of Female Choice

Heterozygosity and Maximum Lifetime Fecundity

Bibliography

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.