Opinions on good evolutionary ecology text

GeoffP

Caput gerat lupinum
Valued Senior Member
I'm interested in the opinions of the scientific community on the best genetics text to come out in the last few years. Essentially I'm thinking about getting a new evolutionary ecology and I'm interested to know what people's favourites are and why. I'm looking for a fairly broad quantitative text that covers some or all of: QTL (incl epistasis), heritability (incl maternal and dominant models), GxE (reaction norms or environmental morph induction), Fst/Qst and the like. Maybe rtPCR / gene chip also, though I'm sure my budget won't cover that.

Cheers,

Geoff
 
First, evolution, genetics and ecology are distinct subjects: you're not going to find any one textbook that covers all these subject areas in the depth that you are looking for. Even within the field of genetics, which would cover your preliminary interests in epistasis and heritability, I would recommend that you start with two or three textbooks that you can then cross-reference to get a different point-of-view, perspective, and explanation. All of them cover PCR at an introductory level, but not RT-PCR and diagnostic gene chips.

I don't know of any text that goes into the depth of genotype X environment interaction effects (GxE) that you want because this subject crosses over into numerous other fields, including psychology and the health sciences. Quantitative traits (QST) and molecular markers (FST) can also get very specialized, then you're getting into genetic linkages and DNA sequencing - advanced genetics.

You're definitely much more into the realm of genetics than either evolution or ecology if your'e focussing on QTL, GxE, Fst/Qst, RT-PCR and gene chips, but you'd still have to narrow down what you want to learn as no textbook will cover all these subjects indepth. You'll probably just have to get a good introductory text and do some independent research into your specific field(s) of interest.

Some good intro genetics texts are:

"Genetics: Analyses of Genes and Genomes," by Hartl and Jones (covers QTL, maternal heritability, and PCR)
"Genetics: From Genes to Genomes," by Leland Hartwell, Leroy Hood, Michael L. Goldberg, Lee M. Silver, Ruth C. Veres, Ann Reynolds.
"Concepts of Genetics," by William S. Klug, Michael R. Cummings.
"Essential iGenetics," by Peter J. Russell (not the best)

You can get good reviews on these books through Amazon.com or another option is to go to the college bookstores in your area and browze through the textbooks that are currently being used for specific courses in genetics.
 
They are not really separate topics, a closely associated group here is exactly doing that: combining genetics, evolution and ecology.

However, I cannot point out any favourite textbooks because I never came accross one when I was studying biology. And I don't know if there are any, because as valich already hinted at: textbooks are often limited.

There is an eco-devo chapter in 'Development' by Scott Gilbert which shows some genetic examples, which relates to another evo-devo chapter in it also. But you don't have to buy that. It is on pubmed books. Pubmed books could actually be a nice source for you. It's for free and you could collect the information you might require from a myriad of books. I often use it to look up the basic stuff. It goes more indepth than wikipedia (of course) and isn't too detailed as is usually the case in peer-reviewed articles.
 
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Thanks to both: traditionally I've used Falconer and Mackay, and Roff's book "Evolutionary Quantitative Genetics" and then of course, there's the solid slab of Lynch and Walsh (which I was told I had to know for my frigging comps, then a week before talked to the supervisor and heard that it wasn't actually on the menu...). An excellent 980 pp of great stuff that starts off slow and then performs a half-paragraph moon shot. I understood they were going to do their "pop gen" book a while back, but I don't think it ever made it past the freebie internet files page - which, in fact, is pretty darn cool. If they printed it I'd buy it.

Anyway I think it's possible to combine the fields, but maybe it's also time I stopped trying to blanket and specialized. Maybe Roff's new one or that Stearns one.
 
The topics are all intertwined and very much related, but at a university they are initially taught independently as different course subjects: what you list is all genetics. A course in Evolutionary Quantitative Genetics would first require basic genetics: quantitative genetics and population genetics are advanced genetics.

I wish I could afford the books you mention. Lynch and Walsh is a hard read and now "missing" from our library stacks.

Quantitative genetics: how do you keep focused? I have too many diverse interests in paleontology and evolution. Book review: http://www.amazon.com/Genetics-Anal...0878934812/ref=pd_sim_b_1/102-3554407-0892147
 
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