Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of basic concepts and statistical tools underlying the development of population and quantitative genetics theory. These branches of genetics are of crucial importance with regard to the understanding of equilibria and shifts in (i) the genotypic composition of a population and (ii) the mean and variation exhibited by the population. In order to keep the theory to be developed manageable, two assumptions are made throughout the book, i.e. absence of linkage and absence of epistasis. These assumptions concern traits with quantitative variation.