*CH 10 Reg Bio: Population Genetics

Regular Biology
Chapter 10: Population Genetics

Population genetics is the study of allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four main evolutionary processes: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene flow. It also takes into account the factors of recombination, population subdivision and population structure. It attempts to explain such phenomena as adaptation and speciation.

Population genetics was a vital ingredient in the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis. Its primary founders wereSewall Wright, J. B. S. Haldane and R. A. Fisher, who also laid the foundations for the related discipline of quantitative genetics.

Traditionally a highly mathematical discipline, modern population genetics encompasses theoretical, lab and field work. Computational approaches, often using coalescent theory, have played a central role since the 1980s.