Selection in Natural Populations [Paperback]

In 1974, Richard Lewontin publishedThe 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.

1. Natural Selection, Fitness Determination, and Molecular Variation
2. Classes of Abundant Genetic Variation
3. Environmental Heterogeneity and Enzyme Polymorphism
4. The Impact of a Single Gene
5. Patterns of Variation among Loci
6. The Axis of Individual Heterozygosity: Theory
7. The Axis of Individual Heterozygosity: Empirical Data
8. Female Choice and Male Fitness
9. Patterns among Species
10. The Sisyphean Cycle
11. Comments on Natural Selection
Appendix 1. Average Heterozygosity and Genetic Distance among Species
Appendix 2. Pascal Program for the Simulation of the Evolution of Female Choice
Appendix 3. Heterozygosity and Maximum Lifetime Fecundity
Bibliography
Index

In this advanced work, written for an audience with a background in genetics and evolutionary biology, Mitton examines the rich alc(