Biometrical genetics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. The genetical foundation

   • Kenneth Mather, John L. Jinks

   Pages 1-32

3. Characters

   • Kenneth Mather, John L. Jinks

   Pages 33-48

4. Sources of variation: scales

   • Kenneth Mather, John L. Jinks

   Pages 49-64

5. Components of means: additive and dominance effects

   • Kenneth Mather, John L. Jinks

   Pages 65-82

6. Components of means: interaction and heterosis

   • Kenneth Mather, John L. Jinks

   Pages 83-126

7. Components of variation

   • Kenneth Mather, John L. Jinks

   Pages 127-171

8. Interaction and linkage

   • Kenneth Mather, John L. Jinks

   Pages 172-208

9. Randomly breeding populations

   • Kenneth Mather, John L. Jinks

   Pages 209-248

10. Diallels

    • Kenneth Mather, John L. Jinks

    Pages 249-284

11. Departures from simple disomic inheritance

    • Kenneth Mather, John L. Jinks

    Pages 285-307

12. The number of effective factors

    • Kenneth Mather, John L. Jinks

    Pages 308-336

13. Experiments and concepts

    • Kenneth Mather, John L. Jinks

    Pages 337-366

14. Back Matter

    Pages 367-382

    PDF

The properties of continuous variation are basic to the theory of evolution and to the practice of plant and animal improvement. Yet the genetical study of continuous variation has lagged far behind that of discontinuous variation. The reason for this situation is basically methodological. Mendel gave us not merely his principles of heredity, but also a method of experiment by which these principles could be tested over a wider range of living species, and extended into the elaborate genetical theory of today. The power of this tool is well attested by the speed with which genetics has grown. In less than fifty years, it has not only developed a theoretical structure which is unique in the biological sciences, but has established a union with nuclear cytology so close that the two have become virtually a single science offering us a new approach to problems so diverse as those of evolution, development, disease, cellular chemistry and human welfare. Much of this progress would have been impossible and all would have been slower without the Mendelian method of recognizing and using unit differences in the genetic materials.

• chemistry
• cytology
• development
• evolution
• genetics
• theory of evolution

• University of Southampton, UK

  Kenneth Mather

• University of Birmingham, UK

  Kenneth Mather, John L. Jinks

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