Raising hopes for disease treatment and prevention, but also the specter of discrimination and "designer genes," genetic testing is potentially one of the most socially explosive developments of our time. This book presents a current assessment of this rapidly evolving field, offering principles for actions and research and recommendations on key issues in genetic testing and screening. Advantages of early genetic knowledge are balanced with issues associated with such knowledge: availability of treatment, privacy and discrimination, personal decision-making, public health objectives, cost, and more. Among the important issues covered: Quality control in genetic testing. Appropriate roles for public agencies, private health practitioners, and laboratories. Value-neutral education and counseling for persons considering testing. Use of test results in insurance, employment, and other settings.
This volume focuses on critical issues surrounding the intersection of genetics, health, and society. It provides a critical examination of sociological and biomedical approaches to genomics, including strengths and limitations of each perspective.
First published in 1943, “Animal Breeding Plans” contains a detailed guide on animal breeding designed for students with experience of genetics, embryology, breeds, and stock judging. It aims to furnish the reader with a clear understanding of the means available for improving the heredity of farm animals, especially what each possible method will or will not do well. Highly recommended for modern farmers and animal breeders. Contents include: “Origin and Domestication of Farm Animals”, “Consequences of Domestication”, “Beginning of Pedigree Breeding Methods in the United States”, “History of Animal Breeding Methods in the United States”, “Relation of the Breed Association to Breed Improvement”, “Genetic Principles in Animal Breeding”, “Mendelian Basis of Inheritance”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on farming.
Bee Genetics and Breeding provides an overview of the state of knowledge in bee genetics and breeding. The book is organized into two parts. Part I deals with the scholarly issues of bee genetics. It is intended as a reference source for students of both bees and genetics. It could also serve as a text for university courses in bee genetics. Topics discussed include the evolution of eusocial insects; geographical variability and classification of honey bees; and behavioral and biochemical genetics of honey bees. Part II deals more specifically with the practical issues of bee breeding. The discussions include the quantitative genetics of honey bees; ways to define and measure honey-bee characteristics so that the "best" parents for honey-bee stock improvement programs can be selected; and mating designs. This section contains sufficient guidance for bee breeders to initiate or improve breeding programs. Apiculturalists generally will find this part especially interesting since the quality of their own bee stock depends on the skills and knowledge of the breeders who produce their queens.
Quantitative traits-be they morphological or physiological characters, aspects of behavior, or genome-level features such as the amount of RNA or protein expression for a specific gene-usually show considerable variation within and among populations. Quantitative genetics, also referred to as the genetics of complex traits, is the study of such characters and is based on mathematical models of evolution in which many genes influence the trait and in which non-genetic factors may also be important. Evolution and Selection of Quantitative Traits presents a holistic treatment of the subject, showing the interplay between theory and data with extensive discussions on statistical issues relating to the estimation of the biologically relevant parameters for these models. Quantitative genetics is viewed as the bridge between complex mathematical models of trait evolution and real-world data, and the authors have clearly framed their treatment as such. This is the second volume in a planned trilogy that summarizes the modern field of quantitative genetics, informed by empirical observations from wide-ranging fields (agriculture, evolution, ecology, and human biology) as well as population genetics, statistical theory, mathematical modeling, genetics, and genomics. Whilst volume 1 (1998) dealt with the genetics of such traits, the main focus of volume 2 is on their evolution, with a special emphasis on detecting selection (ranging from the use of genomic and historical data through to ecological field data) and examining its consequences.
For more than ten years, the distinguished geneticists James F. Crow and William F. Dove have edited the popular "Perspectives" column in Genetics, the journal of the Genetics Society of America. This book, Perspectives on Genetics, collects more than 100 of these essays, which cumulatively are a history of modern genetics research and its continuing evolution.
Although the field of quantitative genetics - the study of the genetic basis of variation in quantitative characteristics such as body size, or reproductive success - is almost 100 years old, its application to the study of evolutionary processes in wild populations has expanded greatly over the last few decades. During this time, the use of 'wild quantitative genetics' has provided insights into a range of important questions in evolutionary ecology, ranging from studies conducting research in well-established fields such as life-history theory, behavioural ecology and sexual selection, to others addressing relatively new issues such as populations' responses to climate change or the process of senescence in natural environments. Across these fields, there is increasing appreciation of the need to quantify the genetic - rather than just the phenotypic - basis and diversity of key traits, the genetic basis of the associations between traits, and the interaction between these genetic effects and the environment. This research activity has been fuelled by methodological advances in both molecular genetics and statistics, as well as by exciting results emerging from laboratory studies of evolutionary quantitative genetics, and the increasing availability of suitable long-term datasets collected in natural populations, especially in animals. Quantitative Genetics in the Wild is the first book to synthesize the current level of knowledge in this exciting and rapidly-expanding area. This comprehensive volume also offers exciting perspectives for future studies in emerging areas, including the application of quantitative genetics to plants or arthropods, unraveling the molecular basis of variation in quantitative traits, or estimating non-additive genetic variance. Since this book deals with many fundamental questions in evolutionary ecology, it should be of interest to graduate, post-graduate students, and academics from a wide array of fields such as animal behaviour, ecology, evolution, and genetics.
