A Primer of Molecular Population Genetics

by Asher D. Cutter

Overview

What are the genomic signatures of adaptations in DNA? How often does natural selection dictate changes to DNA? How does the ebb and flow in the abundance of individuals over time get marked onto chromosomes to record genetic history? Molecular population genetics seeks to answer such questions by explaining genetic variation and molecular evolution from micro-evolutionary principles. It provides a way to learn about how evolution works and how it shapes species by incorporating molecular details of DNA as the heritable material. It enables us to understand the logic of how mutations originate, change in abundance in populations, and become fixed as DNA sequence divergence between species. With the revolutionary advances in genomic data acquisition, understanding molecular population genetics is now a fundamental requirement for today's life scientists. These concepts apply in analysis of personal genomics, genome-wide association studies, landscape and conservation genetics, forensics, molecular anthropology, and selection scans. This book introduces, in an accessible way, the bare essentials of the theory and practice of molecular population genetics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198838951
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/06/2019
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	501,654
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Asher D. Cutter, Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Canada

Asher D. Cutter is a Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. He earned a B.S. in Biology and Environmental Studies at Tufts University and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for post-graduate study in Australia at James Cook University. After completing a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, he studied as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh as an NSF International Scholar. While at the University of Toronto, he has served as Canada Research Chair in Evolutionary Genomics and as Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: what is molecular population genetics? 2. The origins of molecular diversity3. Quantifying genetic variation at the molecular level4. Neutral theories of molecular evolution5. Genealogy in evolution6. Recombination and linkage disequilibrium in evolutionary signatures7. Natural selection and demography as causes of molecular non-randomness8. Molecular deviants: sequence signatures of selection and demography9. Case studies in molecular population genetics: genotype to phenotype to selection

Editorial Reviews

"This is a timely and interesting book that will not quickly become outdated and that will attract many scientists to the fascinating field of molecular genetics as it applies to questions of ecological relevance." — Conservation Biology

From the Publisher