Ecological genetics
study of genetics in natural populations
Ecological genetics is the study of genetics in natural populations. It combines ecology, evolution, and genetics to understand the processes behind adaptation. It is virtually synonymous with the field of molecular ecology.
This contrasts with classical genetics, which works mostly on crosses between laboratory strains, and DNA sequence analysis, which studies genes at the molecular level.
Research in this field is on traits of ecological significance—traits that affect an organism's fitness, or its ability to survive and reproduce. Examples of such traits include flowering time, drought tolerance, polymorphism, mimicry, and avoidance of attacks by predators.
Research usually involves a mixture of field and laboratory studies. Samples of natural populations may be taken back to the laboratory for their genetic variation to be analyzed. Changes in the populations at different times and places will be noted, and the pattern of mortality in these populations will be studied. Research is often done on organisms that have short generation times, such as insects and microbial communities.
“Ecological genetics” enters the record as study of genetics in natural populations. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ecological, genetics and study can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ecological genetics” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.