Selection

The Mechanism of Evolution
2. Auflage 2008
ISBN: 978-0-19-856973-2
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 568 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 189 mm x 246 mm, Gewicht: 1081 g

This book adopts an experimental approach to understanding the mechanisms of evolution and the nature of evolutionary processes, with examples drawn from microbial, plant and animal systems. It incorporates insights from remarkable recent advances in theoretical modelling, and the fields of molecular genetics and environmental genomics.

Adaptation is caused by selection continually winnowing the genetic variation created by mutation. In the last decade, our knowledge of how selection operates on populations in the field and in the laboratory has increased enormously, and the principal aim of this book is to provide an up-to-date account of selection as the principal agent of evolution. In the classical Fisherian model, weak selection acting on many genes of small effect over long periods of time is responsible for driving slow and gradual change. However, it is now clear that adaptation in laboratory populations often involves strong selection acting on a few genes of large effect, while in the wild selection is often strong and highly variable in space and time. Indeed these results are changing our perception of how evolutionary change takes place. This book summarizes our current understanding of the causes and consequences of selection, with an emphasis on quantitative and experimental studies. It includes the latest research into experimental evolution, natural selection in the wild, artificial selection, selfish genetic elements, selection in social contexts, sexual selection, and speciation.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bell, Graham

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Tierkunde / Zoologie Tiergenetik, Reproduktion
• Naturwissenschaften Astronomie Exobiologie, Astrobiologie, Xenobiologie
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften DNA und Transgene Organismen
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Evolutionsbiologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Soziobiologie
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Exobiologie, Astrobiologie
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Botanik Pflanzenreproduktion, Verbreitung, Genetik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- 1: Simple selection

- 2: The genetic and ecological context of selection

- 3: Natural selection in closed asexual populations

- 4: Prometheus Unbound: realeasing the constraints on natural selection

- 5: Selection in multicellular organisms

- 6: Artificial selection

- 7: Natural selection in open populations

- 8: Adaptive radiation: diversity and specialization

- 9: Autoselection: selfish genetic elements

- 10: Social selection

- 11: Coevolution

- 12: Sexual selection

- 13: Speciation

- Epitome

Über Autor(innen)

Graham Bell is a professor of biology at McGill University in Montreal. He has published many articles on ecology and evolution, and three books: the Masterpiece of Nature (1982), Sex and Death in Protozoa (1988) and Selection (1996).