Fundamentals of molecular evolution / Wen-Hsiung Li & Dan Graur.

Contents;

Introduction: What is molecular evolution?
1. Gene structure and mutation
DNA sequences
Gene structure
Genetic codes
Mutation

2. Dynamics of genes in populations
Changes in allele frequencies
Natural selection
Random genetic drift
Effective population size
etc.

3. Evolutionary change in nucleotide sequences
Nucleotide substitution in a DNA sequence
Number of nucleotide substitutions between two DNA sequences
Alignment of nucleotide and amino acid sequences
Indirect estimation of the number of nucleotide substitutions

4. Rates and patterns of nucleotide substitution
Rates of nucleotide substitution
Causes of variation in substitution rates
A case of positive selection: Lysozyme in cows and langurs
Molecular clocks
etc.

5. Molecular phylogeny
Impact of molecular data on phylogenetic studies
Phylogenetic trees
Methods of tree reconstruction
Phenetics versus cladistics
Estimation of branch lengths
etc.

6. Evolution by gene duplication and exon shuffling
Types of DNA duplication
Domains and exons
Domain duplication and gene elongation
Formation of gene families and the acquisition of new functions
etc

7. Evolution by transposition
Transposition and retroposition
Transposable elements
Retrosequences
Effects of transposition on the host genome
Hybrid dysgenesis
Transposition and speciation
etc.

8. Genome organization and evolution
C values
Evolution of genome size in bacteria
Genome size of eukaryotes and the C-value paradox
The repetitive structure of the eukaryotic genome
Mechanisms for increasing genome size
etc.

Includes bibliographical references and index.