Selection in Natural PopulationsIn 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. |
Contents
Natural Selection Fitness Determination and Molecular Variation | 3 |
Classes of Abundant Genetic Variation | 14 |
Selection on mitochondrial genome size | 20 |
Copyright | |
18 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
3000 Drosophila allelic frequencies allozyme allozyme heterozygosity amino acid animals average heterozygosity Avise axis Ayala biochemical biologists blue mussel chapter chromosomes coefficients Colias common components of fitness correlation dehydrogenase developmental stability differences differentiation eggs electrophoretic environmental heterogeneity environments enzyme kinetics enzyme loci equilibrium erozygosity estimated evolution evolutionary favored fecundity female choice figure fish fluctuating asymmetry Fundulus heteroclitus gene flow genetic distance genetic variation genome genus geographic range growth rate Hamrick hemoglobin heterozy heterozygous highly heterozygous homozygotes homozygous increased with heterozygosity individual heterozygosity killifish kinetic Koehn levels of genetic linkage disequilibrium markers measured melanogaster metabolic Mitton molecular morphological mtDNA multilocus natural populations natural selection Nevo offspring overdominance oxygen consumption pattern Peromyscus phenotypes physiological pine plants polymorphic loci polymorphisms predictions produced protein protein polymorphisms relationship relative fitnesses revealed salinity sample sexual selection species studies substrate temperature tion truncation selection vari variability variance viability Zouros zygotic