Selection in Natural Populations

Front Cover
Oxford University Press, 2000 - Science - 256 pages
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.

From inside the book

Contents

Natural Selection Fitness Determination and Molecular Variation
3
Classes of Abundant Genetic Variation
14
Selection on mitochondrial genome size
20
The Randomness of a Sample of Proteins
26
The Impact of a Single Gene
41
Patterns of Variation Among Loci
58
Discordant Patterns of Geographic Variation
68
Empirical Data
87
Female Choice and Male Fitness
127
Patterns among Species
144
Surveys of Natural Populations
150
Summary
156
Comments on Natural Selection
167
Average Heterozygosity and Genetic Distance Among
175
Heterozygosity and Maximum Lifetime Fecundity
192
Index
233

Empirical Data and the Adaptive Distance Model
118

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Popular passages

Page 209 - Scott. 1984. Multiple-locus heterozygosity and the physiological energetics of growth in the coot clam, Mulinia lateralis, from a natural population.
Page 226 - Scheltema, RS (1977) Dispersal of marine invertebrate organisms: Paleobiogeographic and biostratigraphic implications. Pp. 73-108. In: Kauffman, EG and JE Hazel (eds.). Concepts and Methods of Biostratigraphy.
Page 209 - WJ. Diehl. 1990. Interrelationships of heterozygosity, growth rate and heterozygote deficiencies in the coot clam, Mulinia lateralis. Genetics 124:687-699.
Page 213 - Jeffreys, AJ, Royle, NJ, Wilson, V., and Wong, Z. (1988) Spontaneous mutation rates to new length alleles at tandem-repetitive hypervariable loci in human DNA.
Page 225 - Rogers, S., Wells, R. and Rechsteiner, M. (1986) Amino acid sequences common to rapidly degraded proteins: the PEST hypothesis.
Page 203 - Brown, JL 1997. A theory of mate choice based on heterozygosity. Behav. Ecol.
Page 206 - Diamond, SA, MC Newman, M. Mulvey, PM Dixon and D. Martinson, 1989. Allozyme genotype and time to death of mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis (Baird and Girard), during acute exposure to inorganic mercury. Environ. Toxicol. Chem.
Page 213 - minisatellite" regions in human DNA. Nature 314:67-73. Jeffreys, AJ, V. Wilson, and SL Thein. 1985b. Individual-specific "fingerprints
Page 215 - Bivalve species duration, areal extent and population size in a Cretaceous sea.

About the author (2000)

Jeffry B.MittonProfessor, Department of Environmental Population and Organismic BiologyUniversity of Colorado, Boulder.

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