Forum:Introductory Maths or Stats Books for Population Genetics

Question

[JMR]

I just started a PhD in Population Genetics and I've been struggling with both, the mathematical and statistical concepts that I usually encounter while reading articles. I have read some introductory books on Population Genetics but the math on them are usually easy to understand and not as challenging as the one I encounter while reading new papers.

What good books on maths and stats would you recommend me?

Thanks in advance.

[dariober]

Hi- Maybe it would help framing the answers if you add some papers you have been struggling with and the textbooks you hint to. Anyway, my suggestion is Genetics and Analysis of Quantitative Traits, but neither this nor the answers posted so far are textbooks of math or statistics. Good luck!

[SES]

The books I suggested, particularly Otto and Day, are actually quite heavy on the math. Take a look if you get a chance. I don't think it would be helpful to recommend a book on differential calculus and suggest that a beginner make the connections to insect populations, for example. It's probably better to read a good synthesis on the fundamental models, equations, and papers like those presented in some of these books. If someone can get through those texts and want to go deeper into the math, then that is a different question (and one we probably won't see).

[dariober]

Oh yeah, Otto & Day as well as Genetics & Analysis of QT are pretty heavy on the math. But since the OP says s/he looking for math or stats books rather than genetics/biology books with maths in them, these are not really spot on suggestions (hence my comment). Anyway, nice thread, let's see if further suggestions come through...

[JMR]

For instance, I've been reading this article: Fast and accurate inference of local ancestry in Latino populations which covers an implementation of local ancestry estimation using genome-wide SNP data using Hidden Markvo Models (HMM). My undergrad stats courses used only the Frequentist approach and not the Bayesian.

[MPW]

Hi JMR, I am in a similar situation to you. Are you able to share with me what textbooks and resources worked well for your stat- popgen learning? I'm needing to learn f3, f4, and Patterson's D statistics, and the underlying stats for models/programs such as ADMIXTURE, STRUCTURE, and apAdm. Any additional advice from others would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

[SES]

See this answer to a similar question which covers the topic quite well. From my experience, a combination of Hartl and Clark's Principles of population genetics and Otto and Day's Biologists's guide to mathematical modeling will give you a firm background in the field. More recently I have noticed Roff's Modeling Evolution book being used for hands-on courses at the graduate level (lots of code examples) and this will be the next book I buy on this topic.

Answer 2

[Manvendra Singh]

If One book, then I would suggest the book named as "Population Genetics" by Matthew Hamilton on WILEY.

http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405132779.html

It has very nice display of computational simulations and well explained mathematical derivations.

My Ex-Supervisor had recommended , though I was immune to mathematical approaches :)