The Measured Genotype Approach to Ecological Genetics

Evolution, in its most basic sense, is a change in the frequencies of alleles or gametic complexes over space and time. Because evolution is a genetic process, it is not surprising that advances in the science of genetics, and recombinant DNA techniques in particular, are having a major impact on evolutionary biology. The most immediate impact is in the areas of molecular evolution and phylogenetic reconstruction, but in this chapter we will show that recombinant DNA technology can also be applied to the area of ecological genetics; a subdiscipline of evolutionary biology that at first glance seems far removed from molecular genetics.