The Ecological genetics reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Ecological genetics

Ecological genetics is the study of genetics (itself a field of biology) from an ecological perspective. While molecular genetics studies the structure and function of genes at a molecular level, ecological genetics (and the related field of population genetics) studies wild populations of organisms.

Although work on natural populations had been done previously, it is acknowledged that the field was founded by the Briton E.B. Ford in the early 20th century. Ecological genetics is the title of his 1964 'magnum opus' on the subject.

The most famous example of an ecological genetics study is the of the peppered moth, Biston betularia, though there are many others.

See also

• antibiotic resistance
• peppered moth, Biston betularia,
• scarlet tiger moth, Calimorpha dominula,
• pesticide resistance

References

• Ford E.B (1964). Ecological Genetics
• Cain A.J. and W.B. Provine (1992). Genes and ecology in history. In: R.J. Berry, T.J. Crawford and G.M. Hewitt (eds). Genes in Ecology. Blackwell Scientific: Oxford. (Provides a good historical background)

Subfields of genetics
Classical genetics | Ecological genetics | Molecular genetics | Population genetics | Quantitative genetics
Related topics: Genomics | Reverse genetics

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