Fundamental Quantitative Genetic Literature

Overview

Textbooks
Classic papers

Textbooks

Falconer & Mackay (1996).Introduction to Quantitative Genetics. 4th edition. Pearson UK.

An easy to read, yet thorough introduction to the concepts and methods of quantitative genetics.

Lynch & Walsh (1998). Genetics and Analysis of Quantitative Traits. Sinauer.

Very detailed and technical description of the quantitative genetic theory and of the estimation methods.

Walsh & Lynch (2018). Evolution and Selection of Quantitative Traits. Oxford University Press.

The long-awaited volume two of the previous book. Covers many topics even more relevant to evolutionary ecologists: rates and limits to evolutionary responses, multivariate selection and evolution, Genetic-by-Environment interactions… An absolute reference for evolutionary quantitative genetics

Anne Charmantier, Dany Garant, & Loeske E. B. Kruuk (2014). Quantitative Genetics in the Wild. Oxford University Press

This textbook summarizes two decades of quantitative genetic studies in wild populations and contains several key studies not published elsewhere. You must have this one, it is an easy read, and the most relevant book published to date (in term of quantitative genetics in the wild at least).

Classic papers

The following papers are must read to understand the bases of evolutionary quantitative genetics in wild populations, and to avoid some fatal pitfalls.

Kruuk (2004) Estimating genetic parameters in natural populations using the ‘ animal model ‘. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences 359(1446):873–890. 10.1098/rstb.2003.1437.

Postma (2006) Implications of the difference between true and predicted breeding values for the study of natural selection and micro-evolution. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19(2):309-320. 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2005.01007.x

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