Quantitative Genetics

Quantitative genetics is the study of continuously varying traits which make up the majority of biological attributes of evolutionary and commercial interest. This book provides a much-needed up-to-date, in-depth yet accessible text for the field. In lucid language, the author guides readers through the main concepts of population and quantitative genetics and their applications. It is written to be approachable to even those without a strong mathematical background, including applied examples, a glossary of key terms, and problems and solutions to support students in grasping important theoretical developments and their relevance to real-world biology. An engaging, must-have textbook for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students. Given its applied focus, it also equips researchers in genetics, genomics, evolutionary biology, animal and plant breeding, and conservation genetics with the understanding and tools for genetic improvement, comprehension of the genetic basis of human diseases, and conservation of biological resources.

Preface; Preface to the Spanish version; 1. Continuous variation; 2. Forces of change in the allele frequencies; 3. Components of phenotypic values and variances; 4. Inbreeding and coancestry; 5. Effective population size; 6. Estimation of genetic values, variances and covariances; 7. Mutation; 8. Consequences of inbreeding; 9. Artificial selection; 10. Natural selection; 11. Genomic analysis of quantitative traits; Solution to the problems and self-assessment questions; Glossary; References; Index.

Armando Caballero is Professor of Genetics at Universidade de Vigo, Spain, with research interests in quantitative and population genetics, conservation genetics and evolution. He has served as Associate Editor for the journals Evolution, American Naturalist, Journal of Evolutionary Biology, Genetics Selection Evolution and Heredity.