Customer Reviews

Population Genetics: A Concise Guide

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Many authors make population genetics a boring, and often a formidable discipline in Biology. Therefore, many students avoid taking population genetics, inspite of its central importance in understanding many biological processes. John Gillespie has intertwined theory with superb experimental data. He has made population genetics accessable by all biologists, and even enjoyable, which is an incredible achievement. Besides, his writing style is rare among science writers. His style is comparable to the other great stylist among geneticists, Professor James F. Crow.

Theodosius Dobzhansky said, "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."

Mike Lynch at Indiana University added, "Nothing in evolution makes sense except in the light of population genetics." (PNAS)

If such is the case, Gillespie's book is an essential guide and workbook through the foundation of biology in terms of mathematics and probability.

1.) The book flows. It begins with the basics of Hardy-Weinberg, and makes the mathematics of population genetics easy by building on the basics slowly through the book's chapters. Important mathematical background is addressed in the appendices.

2.) Each chapter has questions at the end to help crystallize the material.

3.) Examples from the scientific literature are used judiciously.

4.) Lucid explanation of genetic drift, the coalescent, and neutral theory are all provided.

I have nothing but the highest praise for this classic.

This is a wonderfully clear and concise introduction to population genetics. The emphasis is on fundamental insights gleaned from relatively simple models. If you want to learn something about this approach to studying evolution, start here.

I am a retired professor of population genetics and I should like to keep myself in the mainstraim of population genetics. There are several recent good books on this topic, but they are quite expensive. Since much time I know the author as one of the best theoretician in population genetics, author of an excellent but hard to understand fully without serious efforts.
The present book is in principle destined to students and the author is supposed to make an effort to render accessible his teaching. In this course, some parts are really very classical and easy to understand - actually, it was what I taught to my own students of "DEUG and "Maîtrise" level. Of course, it was not that which I looked for in this book. For instance I was interested by the concept of "coalescence" which is too recent for I am aware of it during my time of activity. And indeed, it is quite well explained by Gillespie. Frankly speakig, when it comes to the field of which the author is a leading specialist (and which is more familiar to me), things become of more difficult access. But I must confess that I have probably been less hungry of these subjects.
This book will relly bring the students who use it to a high level and they will prepared to access to the most advanced developments of population genetics - provided that they make the necessary effort!
Henri A Descimon
Honorary Professor
Université de Provence
France

I bought this book because I thought it would be a straightforward introduction to population genetics. The first two reviews were written by people who already seem to understand population genetics fairly well; for someone who was genuinely just starting out, however, I cannot say I found it particularly digestible.

Terms are used in this text without any definitions until much later on. Topics are also divided in such a way that they are introduced in one chapter in an advanced form, and then a basic form revealed later! A friend with ADHD attempted to explain a Monte Carlo simulation to me once, and reading this book kind of reminded of me of that.

Also, the book is littered with complex formulae that students are intended to decypher for themselves, with random notes in the back of the book that may or may not assist with this - often, no verbal/written attempt is made to explain what they are for. Students require clear descriptions of what a formula does, and how it can be applied, and in what sort of circumstances long, long before they give a damn about the proofs.

This was written by somebody very fond of navel gazing and showing off their 9th grade algebra and less about providing any instruction about population genetics. This needs to be a lot clearer and more concise in the future. More descriptions of when/where to use formulae, and what they are for. Use examples from actual organisms to make it interesting, and maybe somebody will actually read it.