Molecular Population Genetics: Introduction

Abstract

In the preceding chapters of this book the basic genetic unit was taken as the gene, and the basic numerical quantity was the gene frequency. In particular, the fundamental unit step in evolution was taken as the replacement of one gene (more strictly, allele) by another in a population, and static genetic polymorphisms were usually described in terms of forces acting on gene frequencies. While in Chapters 6 and 7 the point was made that these polymorphisms are better viewed through forces acting on sets of genes at many loci, it remains true that no genetic unit finer than the gene has yet been considered in this book.