danny at cs.su.oz.au (Danny Yee) writes a brief but glowing book review on:
> Genetics, Speciation and the Founder Principle
> (Eds) L.V. Giddings, K.Y. Kaneshiro and W.W. Anderson
> Oxford University Press 1989
> pp. 373
>> Speciation is one of the most interesting aspects of evolutionary
> biology; it is the key process linking microevolution and
> macroevolution. _Genetics, Speciation and the Founder Principle_ is a
> collection of seventeen essays on the underlying genetics of speciation.
> ...
> Such a broad collection of essays will be of interest to a wide range of
> biologists, and _Genetics, Speciation and the Founder Principle_
> wouldn't make a bad introduction to the genetics of speciation for the
> non-specialist with some background in genetics.
>
Given that this book might be `a good introduction for the non-specialist',
I was disappointed that the key term `Founder Principle' is not defined
in the review. All it would take is a single sentence of the following
(or simpler) form:
The Founder Principle was formulated by D.H. Founder in 1991, and
asserts that the incidental characteristics of the members of the
founding subspecies population eventually become defining charac-
teristics of the species it ultimately gives rise to, unless the
sub-population is inundated (founders) when the original mainstream
population re-joins with it.
If this is an important concept in modern evolutionary genetics, could
someone please give us non-specialists the REAL definition? Thanks!
--
Mike Bonham bonham at jade.ab.ca Jade Simulations International
