The Driving Forces of Evolution Genetic Processes in Populations

About this book

Paperback reprint of a 2006 hardback.

The Driving Forces of Evolution gives the reader the basic tools for understanding the results of evolutionary studies, through the calculation of genetic equilibrium frequencies, mutation, migration, genetic drift and natural selection, and enables an appreciation of the effects of non-random mating within populations, as well as gene flow among populations (micro-evolution). It deals with the processes of speciation and extinction (macro-evolution). It describes how the forces operating in the past could have shaped the present world, and how the forces in operation today shape the biological world of tomorrow.

Contents

MAINLY THEORY: The Beginning
- Evolution as an On-going Process
- Populations at Equilibrium: The Hardy-Weinberg Law
- Deviation from Equilibrium: Genetic Drift – Random Changes in Small Populations
- Deviations from Equilibrium: Mutations
- Deviations from Equilibrium: Migration
- Deviations from Equilibrium: Non-random Mating
- Deviation from Equilibrium: Selection

SELECTION IN NATURE: The Theory of Natural Selection: A Historical Outline
- Genetic Variation in Natural Populations
- Genetic Variation in Natural Populations (continued)
- Evolutionary Processes in Natural Populations
- Natural Selection and Adaptation
- Natural Selection and Polymorphism
- Classification of Selection Processes
- Evolution in Asexually-reproducing Populations
- Laboratory Populations as Models for Natural Selection
- The Neutralist-Selectionist Controversy: "Non-Darwinian" Evolution?
- The Neutrality Hypothesis: Molecular Support and Evidence to the Contrary
- Molecular Evolution

MACRO-EVOLUTION: The Concepts of Species in Evolution

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