Panmictic Populations

Abstract

Hereafter we shall be concerned with diploid populations. We begin by investigating in this chapter the genetic structure of a randomly mating population in the absence of selection, mutation, and random drift. This part of population genetics was the first to be understood, and a thorough grasp of its principles is required for the formulation and interpretation of most evolutionary models. To assure the desired comprehension, some fairly detailed examples and problems, of a type that has prove’d useful in human genetics, are presented. In Section 3.1 we shall derive the Hardy-Weinberg law. We shall proceed to sex-linkage and’two loci in Sections 3.2 and 3.3, ubdivision in Section 3.4. These sections provide background for Chapters 4 and 5, 7, 8, and 6, respectively.