Template:Populations (climate change)
Population (Biology)
Published:
Updated: Jan18, 2018
Author: Christopher Fox-Strauss
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Population is a term used to refer to a group of organisms (almost always of a single species) that live in a common region and are capable of reproduction. Populations are used to examine genetic drift, gene flows, mutations, selection, evolution, change and effect, and many other studies in the fields of ecology and biology. [1]
Population genetics is a subfield of genetics that deals with genetic differences within and between populations, and is a part of evolutionary biology. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as adaptation, speciation, and population structure.
Population genetics was a vital ingredient in the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis. Its primary founders were Sewall Wright, J. B. S. Haldane and Ronald 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. Population genetic models are used both for statistical inference from DNA sequence data and for proof/disproof of concept.[2]
What sets population genetics apart today from newer, more phenotypic approaches to modelling evolution, such as evolutionary game theory and adaptive dynamics, is its emphasis on genetic phenomena as dominance, epistasis, and the degree to which genetic recombination breaks up linkage disequilibrium. This makes it appropriate for comparison to population genomics data.
References
[1] "Populations" Biology Online, Oct 15, 2016. http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Population
[2] Servedio, Maria R.; Brandvain, Yaniv; Dhole, Sumit; Fitzpatrick, Courtney L.; Goldberg, Emma E.; Stern, Caitlin A.; Van Cleve, Jeremy; Yeh, D. Justin (9 December 2014).
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Citation
Fox-Strauss, C. (2017, Nov 7). Population (Biology). Retrieved from- ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Population
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Servedio, Maria R.; Brandvain, Yaniv; Dhole, Sumit; Fitzpatrick, Courtney L.; Goldberg, Emma E.; Stern, Caitlin A.; Van Cleve, Jeremy; Yeh, D. Justin (9 December 2014).
