Springer Theoretical Population Genetics

Product Description 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. Review "The author of this book sets out to accomplish a very difficult task...In my view the author is successful....I recommend the book to all biologists..." (Theoretical Population Genetics) Synopsis The rise of the neutral theory of evolution has aroused a renewed interest in the quantitative approach to population genetics, and the aim of this book is to explain this field to biologists with a limited amount of mathematical expertise. The text concentrates almost entirely on stochastic processes, as these seem to be the greatest source of difficulty amongst non-mathematicians. To enhance the flow of the text some points of detail have been placed in notes and exercises sections at the end of each chapter. The material is extensively referenced and contains many carefully worked examples of mathematical proofs.