Customer Reviews

Population Genetics and Microevolutionary Theory

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This latest textbook in population genetics flies above and beyond any other textbook I've read in the field because of its clarity and depth of coverage.

Templeton offers new and unique insights in several key topics in population genetics, and he gives plenty of caveats throughout where important population genetics concepts have been misunderstood. For example, his coverage of inbreeding cofficients is exceptional, and he rightly points out how different inbreeding coefficients are wrongly used in the literature. His approach throughout is multi-dimentional, encompassing the interaction between different evolutionary forces and always stressing the prime importance of population history. A very thorough discussion on the use of linkage disequilibrium in medical genetics is also included.

Does this book have any weak points? It's hard to point out any, such was my overall highly positive impression from reading the book.

Templeton's scholarship is vast and deep, as is his publication record. The unique perspectives offered by this book certainly puts it among the best science books I own.

This is an excellent book on population genetics. Just the right balance of theory, math and real-world examples. The explanations are superb - I'm not new to population genetics, but this book opened my eyes to many things that I thought I understood already.
One of the most common themes in this book is the approach of looking at evolution from the perspective of the gamete. The authors swears by it and takes every opportunity to point this out. I'm not sure this is an overwhelmingly accepted idea in the field, but it makes reading the book quite fun.
The examples that Alan chooses to illustrate the explained concepts deserve a special mention. They are amazing! Many of them are based on genetics of human populations and are absolutely stunning! It's just ten times more fun to read about humans than about birds and bees. One slight warning - don't take these examples as close to truth and do your own research. Some of them are based on shaky old data that barely reaches statistical significance. For example, the story of Tamils (mentioned several times throughout the book) loosing deleterious alleles due to increased inbreeding is based essentially on a single paper from 70-s with the number of such alleles being "not statistically different from 0" (which does not mean much if you think about it).

But don't let this small thing bother you - it's still probably the best book on population genetics out there. Don't miss it!

Quick and reliable service - I would use this seller again. My son got this text book for a Christmas gift - imagine that!?! It was on his "want list".
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Population genetics is concerned with the origin, amount, and distribution of genetic variation present in populations of organisms and the fate of this variation through space and time. As such it is dealing with the mechanisms by which evolution occurs within populations and species, the ultimate basis for all evolutionary change.

It is not a new science, but like the rest of biology has seen significant change occurring as problems of species extinction and environmental degradation became important to students of conservation biology, and as the analytical methods developed for population genetics have been found to be useful in many areas of genomics.

This book provides a basic foundation in population genetics for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. While the book is not primarily mathematical in its approach, the student should have at least a beginning understanding of calculus.

Dr. Templeton is the Charles Rebstock Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis with joint appointments in Genetics and Biomedical Engineering.