Chromosomal evolution in higher plants / G. Ledyard Stebbins.

George Ledyard Stebbins

Date:: 1971

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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Chromosomal evolution in higher plants / G. Ledyard Stebbins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Vrejace The purpose of this book is to present a review of the most significant information now available bearing upon the problem of how chromosomal variation between individuals, populations and species contributes to the processes of evolution. It is intended for students who have had some background and training in general genetics and cytogenetics. It should not be regarded as a general textbook in this field. Further¬ more, some understanding of the basic processes of evolution: mutation, genetic recombination and natural selection, is assumed. The required background for this book can be obtained from such books as Chromosome Marker by K. R. Lewis and B. John; Cell Biology by E. D. P. De Robertis, W. W. Nowinski and F. A. Saez; The Origin of Adaptations by Verne Grant; and Processes of Organic Evolution by the present author. On the other hand, this book is not intended as an exhaustive treatment of the subject for research workers. From the enormous amount of literature that is available, those references have been selected which are most pertinent to the topic at hand. In the case of controversial points and unproved hypotheses, an effort has been made to present both sides of the case in question. In the interest of economy, references to general or review papers or to comprehensive books have been substituted for references to large numbers of original research papers. The overall philosophy of this book has been to present evolutionary cytogenetics in terms of relationships between structure and function at the level of the chromosomal organelle. Its basic assumptions are the following, (i) Chromosomes are much more than strings of DNA molecules. They

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