Haldane, Mayr, and beanbag genetics [electronic resource] / Krishna Dronamraju.
Dronamraju, Krishna R.
2010
QH455 .D76 2010eb
Available Online

Linked e-resources

Linked Resource Online Access

Details

Title Haldane, Mayr, and beanbag genetics [electronic resource] / Krishna Dronamraju.
Author Dronamraju, Krishna R.
ISBN 9780199813346 (electronic bk.)
0195387341
9780195387346
Publication Details Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.
Language English
Description 1 online resource (xi, 274 p.) : ill.
Call Number QH455 .D76 2010eb
Summary Haldane, Mayr, and Beanbag Genetics presents a summary of the classic exchange between two great biologists - J.B.S. Haldane and Ernst Mayr - regarding the value of the contributions of the mathematical school represented by J.B.S. Haldane, R.A. Fisher and S. Wright to the theory of evolution. Their pioneering contributions from 1918 to the 1960s dominated and shaped the field of population genetics, unique in the annals of science. In 1959, Mayr questioned what he regarded as the beanbag genetic approach of these pioneers to evolutionary theory, "an input or output of genes, as the adding of certain beans to a beanbag and the withdrawing of others." In 1964, Mayr's contention was refuted by Haldane in a remarkably witty, vigorous and pungent essay, "A defense of beanbag genetics" which compared the mathematical theory to a scaffolding within which a reasonably secure theory expressible in words may be built up. Correspondence between Haldane and Mayr is included. Beanbag genetics has come a long way since 1964. Mayr's (1959) critique of simple uncomplicated population genetics is no longer valid. Population genetics today includes much more than Mayr's beanbag genetics. Population genetics models now include multiple factors, linkage, dominance and epistasis. These may be regarded as the advanced beanbag models. Furthermore, population genetics and developmental genetics have become interdependent. Contemporary beanbag genetics includes molecular clocks, nucleotide diversity, coalescence and DNA-based phylogenetic trees, along with the four major holdovers from classical genetics, mutation, selection, migration and random drift. Molecular genetics has made it possible to study evolution rates at the nucleotide level. It is also possible today to compare DNA similarities and divergence in diverse species of animals and plants, which were not previously crossable.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Available in Other Form Haldane, Mayr, and beanbag genetics.
Linked Resources Online Access
Record Appears in Online Resources > Ebooks
All Resources
What is beanbag genetics?
Foundations of population genetics
Time line : J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964)
Time line : Ernst Walter Mayr (1904-2005)
JBS Haldane and evolutionary biology
Ernst Mayr and evolutionary biology
Evolution : the modern synthesis.

Browse Subjects

Show more subjects...

Statistics

from
to
Export