Аннотация:It has long been a major aim of population genetics to describe the evolutionary process in a Mendelian framework.Only recently, however, has it been possible to compare the many theoretical calculations made over the years with data describing the degree of genetic divergence between species and the pattern of genetic variation within species.In this book, Kimura argues the case for the "neutral" theory of genetic evolution: that the overwhelming majority of gene frequency changes leading to genetic differences between species, and to polymorphisms within species, were not caused by natural selection but arose instead as the result of purely random, or stochastic, substitutional events acting on effectively selectively equivalent, or even slightly deleterious, alleles.Before describing the book in detail, two general comments should be made.The first is that this is an intensely personal, almost autobiographical, work, with the case for the neutral theory being put with devotion and with the case against being often minimized.Further, the mathematical methods used are very largely those of Kimura and his associates and thus sometimes use awkward or outmoded theory, even to the extent that sometimes
Год издания:2015
Источник:The Dictionary of Genomics, Transcriptomics and Proteomics
