Our systems are now restored following recent technical disruption, and we’re working hard to catch up on publishing. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Find out more

Recommended product

Popular links

Popular links


Quantitative Genetics

Quantitative Genetics

Quantitative Genetics

Armando Caballero, Universidade de Vigo, Spain
April 2020
Available
Hardback
9781108481410

Experience the eBook and the associated online resources on our new Higher Education website. Go to site For other formats please stay on this page.

    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.

    • Explains key population and quantitative genetics concepts in easy-to-understand language, encouraging students to become familiar and confident in the subject
    • Presents clear, step-by-step explanations of how equations are derived, helping students that are struggling with the mathematics of quantitative genetics
    • Provides plenty of examples of the application of theoretical developments to real biological cases, along with solved problems and questions to reinforce students' understanding of the main concepts and their applications

    Reviews & endorsements

    'Quantitative genetics as a scientific discipline isn't dead just yet, despite predictions of its demise over many decades. In fact, it is very much alive in the genomics era, across a wide range of disciplines, including plant and animal breeding, evolutionary genetics and human (medical) genetics. Armando Caballero's timely textbook, a translation and update from his Spanish version, combines a description of the theory and methods underlying quantitative trait variation in populations with data examples and applications from modern genome technologies. It is an excellent introduction to the field, and demonstrates once again how population and quantitative genetics theory has stood the test of time and is highly relevant today.' Peter M. Visscher, University of Queensland

    'Armando Caballero's work is a masterful tour through both evolutionary and applied quantitative genetics. It provides a fruitful and unusual blend of population and quantitative genetics, and it will be extremely useful for anyone who wants to learn more about either of these fields.' Michael Whitlock, University of British Columbia

    'As the field within genetics having arguably the deepest history, quantitative genetics continues as a lively endeavour advancing understanding of the inheritance and change of traits that are continuous in their distributions and complex in the genetic and environmental influences on them. I welcome Caballero's text for new generations of students coming up to speed in this important and challenging field. The problems and questions concluding each chapter will especially aid them in testing their growing understanding. This text will also serve as a valuable resource for established practitioners of quantitative genetics.' Ruth G. Shaw, University of Minnesota

    See more reviews

    Product details

    April 2020
    Hardback
    9781108481410
    338 pages
    250 × 174 × 19 mm
    0.79kg
    101 b/w illus. 43 tables
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • 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.
      Author
    • Armando Caballero , Universidade de Vigo, Spain

      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.