Population Biology Ecological and Evolutionary Viewpoints [Paperback]

Fascinated by the diversity of living organisms, humans have always been curious about its origin. Darwin was the first to provide the scholary and persuasive thesis for gradual evolution and speciation under natural selection. Although we now have much information on evolution, we still don't understand it in detail. Many questions still remain open due to the complexity and multiplicity of interacting factors. Several approaches mainly arising from population ecology and genetics are presented in this book in order to help understand genetic variation and evolution.Fascinated by the diversity of living organisms, humans have always been curious about its origin. Darwin was the first to provide the scholary and persuasive thesis for gradual evolution and speciation under natural selection. Although we now have much information on evolution, we still don't understand it in detail. Many questions still remain open due to the complexity and multiplicity of interacting factors. Several approaches mainly arising from population ecology and genetics are presented in this book in order to help understand genetic variation and evolution.1 Genetic Variation: Prerequisite and Consequence of Evolution.- DNA, the Basis of Inheritance.- Factors Causing Variation in DNA.- Population Genetic Consequences of Transposable Elements.- Evolution of Genome Size.- Gene Families.- Polyploidy.- Gene Activity.- Gene Regulation.- Neutrality.- Gene Interaction.- Recombination.- Phenotype-Genotype Transformation and the Role of Polygenic Analyses of Variation.- 2 Natural Selection: Measures and Modes.- Differential Survival of Zygotes.- Differential Fertility of Adults.- Deviations from Random Mating.- Sexual Selection and Nonrandom Mating.- The Estimation of Fitness Values.- Selection with Overlapping Generations.- Fitness Maximization.- Selection and the Biotic Environment.- 3 Mating Systems and Evolutionary Genetics.- Direct Estimation of the Mating System.- Inbreeding Other than Self-FertlóS