Genetic Homeostasis

That biological feedback mechanisms exist within organisms, whose function is to maintain stability against fluctuating conditions, seems today well established. The total of steady states thus achieved within the organism is denoted as homeostasis. In this book the thesis is advanced and developed that a parallel homeostatic process occurs at the level of interbreeding groups, making for stability in the inheritance of a given population. The author, Professor of Genetics at the University of California in Berkeley, holds that Mendelian populations possess self-regulating properties, that a connection exists between genetic and developmental homeostasis, and that heterozygosity possibly provides a basis for both phenomena. These concepts are presented in terms of results of investigations of various animal populations: chickens, Drosophilia, higher animals, and plants. The evidence concerns data on artificial selection, observations on phenotypic deviants and estimates of variability of homozygotes and heterozygotes. Genetic models underlying the theory are then presented, followed by theoretic justification. An introduction to the general concept of homeostasis and its physiological, social and ecological applica-tions precedes the main body of the work. The author’s entrance to the subject is via his well known work in animal improvement, and his evidence is buttressed by mathematical and diagrammatic analysis. The concept and its exposition are of significant interest to anyone concerned with evolutionary theory, animal husbandry, and, of course, genetics from a theoretical, practical or educational viewpoint.