What are the genomic signatures of adaptations in DNA? How often

does natural selection dictate changes to DNA? How does the ebb and flow

in the abundance of individuals over time get marked onto chromosomes

to record genetic history? Molecular population genetics seeks to answer

such
questions by explaining genetic variation and molecular

evolution from micro-evolutionary principles. It provides a way to learn

about how evolution works and how it shapes species by incorporating

molecular details of DNA as the heritable material. It enables us to

understand the logic of how
mutations originate, change in abundance

in populations, and become fixed as DNA sequence divergence between

species. With the revolutionary advances in genomic data acquisition,

understanding molecular population genetics is now a fundamental

requirement for today's life scientists. These concepts
apply in

analysis of personal genomics, genome-wide association studies,

landscape and conservation genetics, forensics, molecular anthropology,

and selection scans. This book introduces, in an accessible way, the

bare essentials of the theory and practice of molecular population

genetics.