Ecological Genetics

About this book

A reprint of a classical work in the Princeton Legacy Library, originally published in 1994.

Ecological Genetics represents work by five distinguished ecological geneticists, offering an up-to-date source for theoretical concepts and experiments in an exciting field. Combining ecological fieldwork and laboratory genetics, ecological genetics examines the adjustments and adaptations of wild populations to their environments. Articles focus on important interactions between genetics and population ecology, delving into issues like gene flow and migration, population differentiation, the maintenance of genetic variation, and the demographic and spatial structure of populations. The contributors – Janis Antonovics, Michael Lynch, Montgomery Slatkin, Joseph Travis, and Sara Via – emphasize the importance of population size and structure, interaction between local selection and genetic drift, and an expanded phenotype including quantitative as well as qualitative characters. This new form of ecological genetics focuses on large-scale geographic variation in demographic and genetic dynamics among small, partially isolated populations and will prove extremely valuable in natural resource management and in rare or endangered species conservation.

Contents

List of Contributors
Introduction: Current Directions in Ecological Genetics

1 Gene Flow and Population Structure 3
2 Cladistic Analysis of DNA Sequence Data from Subdivided Populations 18
3 The Evolution of Phenotypic Plasticity: What Do We Really Know? 35
4 Population Structure and Local Adaptation in a Clonal Herbivore 58
5 Neutral Models of Phenotypic Evolution 86
6 Evolutionary Genetics of Daphnia 109
7 The Interplay of Numerical and Gene-Frequency Dynamics in Host-Pathogen Systems 129
8 Ecological Genetics of Metapopulations: The Silene-Ustilago Plant-Pathogen System 146
9 Ecological Genetics of Life-History Traits: Variation and Its Evolutionary Significance 171
10 Evolution in the Sailfin Molly: The Interplay of Life-History Variation and Sexual Selection 205

Index 233

Customer Reviews