Population Genetics Molecular Evolution And The Neutral Theory

One of this century's leading evolutionary biologists, Motoo Kimura revolutionized the field with his random drift theory of molecular evolution—the neutral theory—and his groundbreaking theoretical work in population genetics. This volume collects 57 of Kimura's most important papers and covers forty years of his diverse and original contributions to our understanding of how genetic variation affects evolutionary change. Kimura's neutral theory, first presented in 1968, challenged the notion that natural selection was the sole directive force in evolution. Arguing that mutations and random drift account for variations at the level of DNA and amino acids, Kimura advanced a theory of evolutionary change that was strongly challenged at first and that eventually earned the respect and interest of evolutionary biologists throughout the world. This volume includes the seminal papers on the neutral theory, as well as many others that cover such topics as population structure, variable selection intensity, the genetics of quantitative characters, inbreeding systems, and reversibility of changes by random drift. Background essays by Naoyuki Takahata examine Kimura's work in relation to its effects and recent developments in each area.

This book is the first comprehensive treatment of this subject.

The rise of the neutral theory of molecular evolution seems to have aroused a renewed interest in mathematical population genetics among biologists, who are primarily experimenters rather than theoreticians. This has encouraged me to set out the mathematics of the evolutionary process in a manner that, I hope, will be comprehensible to those with only a basic knowledge of calculus and matrix algebra. I must acknowledge from the start my great debt to my students. Equipped initially with rather limited mathematics, they have pursued the subject with much enthusiasm and success. This has enabled me to try a number of different approaches over the years. I was particularly grateful to Dr L. J. Eaves and Professor W. E. Nance for the opportunity to give a one-semester course at the Medical College of Virginia, and I would like to thank them, their colleagues and their students for the many kindnesses shown to me during my visit. I have concentrated almost entirely on stochastic topics, since these cause the greatest problems for non-mathematicians. The latter are particularly concerned with the range of validity of formulae. A sense of confidence in applying these formulae is, almost certainly, best gained by following their derivation. I have set out proofs in fair detail, since, in my experience, minor points of algebraic manipulation occasionally cause problems. To avoid loss of continuity, I have sometimes put material in notes at the end of chapters.

This work provides a unified theory that addresses the important problem of the origin and maintenance of genetic variation in natural populations. With modern molecular techniques, variation is found in all species, sometimes at astonishingly high levels. Yet, despite these observations, the forces that maintain variation within and between species have been difficult subjects of study. Because they act very weakly and operate over vast time scales, scientists must rely on indirect inferences and speculative mathematical models. However, despite these obstacles, many advances have been made. The author's research in molecular genetics, evolution, and bio-mathematics has enabled him to draw on this work, and present a coherent and valuable view of the field. The book is divided into three parts. The first consists of three chapters on protein evolution, DNA evolution, and molecular mechanisms. This section reviews the experimental observations on genetic variation. The second part gives a unified treatment of the mathematical theory of selection in a fluctuating environment. The final two chapters combine the earlier assessments in a treatment of the scientific status of two competing theories for the maintenance of genetic variation. Steeped in the enormous advances population genetics has made over the past 25 years, this book has proven highly popular among human geneticists, biologists, evolutionary theorists, and bio-mathematicians.

Bioinformatics for Beginners: Genes, Genomes, Molecular Evolution, Databases and Analytical Tools provides a coherent and friendly treatment of bioinformatics for any student or scientist within biology who has not routinely performed bioinformatic analysis. The book discusses the relevant principles needed to understand the theoretical underpinnings of bioinformatic analysis and demonstrates, with examples, targeted analysis using freely available web-based software and publicly available databases. Eschewing non-essential information, the work focuses on principles and hands-on analysis, also pointing to further study options. Avoids non-essential coverage, yet fully describes the field for beginners Explains the molecular basis of evolution to place bioinformatic analysis in biological context Provides useful links to the vast resource of publicly available bioinformatic databases and analysis tools Contains over 100 figures that aid in concept discovery and illustration

Although debated since the time of Darwin, the evolutionary role of mutation is still controversial. In over 40 chapters from leading authorities in mutation and evolutionary biology, this book takes a new look at both the theoretical and experimental measurement and significance of new mutation. Deleterious, nearly neutral, beneficial, and polygenic mutations are considered in their effects on fitness, life history traits, and the composition of the gene pool. Mutation is a phenomenon that draws attention from many different disciplines. Thus, the extensive reviews of the literature will be valuable both to established researchers and to those just beginning to study this field. Through up-to-date reviews, the authors provide an insightful overview of each topic and then share their newest ideas and explore controversial aspects of mutation and the evolutionary process. From topics like gonadal mosaicism and mutation clusters to adaptive mutagenesis, mutation in cell organelles, and the level and distribution of DNA molecular changes, the foundation is set for continuing the debate about the role of mutation, fitness, and adaptability. It is a debate that will have profound consequences for our understanding of evolution.

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.

All organisms--from the AIDS virus, to bacteria, to fish, to humans--must evolve to survive. Despite the central place of evolution within biology, there are many things that are still poorly understood. For Charles Darwin, the driving force behind all evolution was natural selection. More recently, evolutionary biologists have considered that many mutations are essentially neutral with respect to natural selection. Many questions remain. Are molecular differences between species adaptive? Are differences within species adaptive? Modern biotechnology has enabled us to identify precisely the actual DNA structure from many individuals within a population, and thus to see how these DNA sequences have changed over time and to answer some of these questions. At the same time, this knowledge poses new challenges to our ability to understand the observed patterns. This exciting volume outlines the biological problems, provides new perspectives on theoretical treatments of the consequences of natural selection, examines the consequences of molecular data, and relates molecular events to speciation. Every evolutionary biologist will find it of interest.