An Introduction to Population Genetics

Rasmus Nielsen is a Professor in the Departments of Integrative Biology and Statistics at the University of California at Berkeley. He first came to Berkeley to pursue a Ph.D. in Population Genetics (with advisor, now coauthor, Montgomery Slatkin), having already earned a Masters in Biology from the University of Copenhagen. Dr. Nielsen was awarded both a Fullbright Fellowship and a Sloan Research Fellowship, and received the Ole Rømer Award and the ElitForsk Award. He edited the book Statistical Methods in Molecular Evolution (Statistics for Biology and Health) (2005). Dr. Nielsen and lab members work on statistical and computational methods and their applications in population genetics, medical genetics, molecular ecology, and molecular evolution.Montgomery Slatkin is a Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California at Berkeley. He earned a B.S. in Mathematics from MIT, and a Ph.D. in Applied Biomathematics from Harvard University (with George F. Carrier and William H. Bossert). Dr. Slatkin is editor of Evolution: Essays in Honour of John Maynard Smith (with P. J. Greenwood and P. H. Harvey) and Modern Developments in Theoretical Population Genetics (with M. Veuille, Oxford University Press). He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science (1997), awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (1999-2000), and received the Sewall Wright Award of the American Society of Naturalists (2000). His research focus is population genetics and genomics, particularly of humans and archaic human relatives.

• Preface.- Introduction.- 1. Allele Frequencies, Genotype Frequencies, and Hardy–Weinberg Equilibrium.- 2. Genetic Drift and Mutation.- 3. Coalescence Theory: Relating Theory to Data.- 4. Population Subdivision.- 5. Inferring Population History and Demography.- 6. Linkage Disequilibrium and Gene Mapping.- 7. Selection I.- 8. Selection in a Finite Population.- 9. The Neutral Theory and Tests of Neutrality.- 10. Selection II: Interaction and Conflict.- 11. Quantitative Genetics.- Appendix A. Basic Probability Theory.- Appendix B. The Exponential Distribution and Coalescence Times.- Appendix C. Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Estimation.- Appendix D. Critical Values of the Chi-square Distribution with d Degrees of Freedom.- Answers to Exercises.- Glossary.

This book is the first textbook I have encountered that takes the coalescent as an integrated, normal aspect of modern population genetics. For anyone wanting to teach this subject, or indeed learn it, Nielsen and Slatkin's recent book presents a refreshingly modern synthesis.