In the last 25 years, we have witnessed a revolution in the way that ecologists and evolutionary biologists approach their disciplines. This revolution has been fueled by the ability to dissect the genetic and molecular basis of variation that is partly the currency of these disci plines. Using modern molecular techniques, we have begun to restruc ture the spectrum of questions that can be addressed in studying the mechanisms and consequences of the ecology and evolution of living organisms. The molecular revolution has co me in waves, so to speak, with three particularly important developments. The first concerns the establish ment and widespread use of pro tein analysis. Microcomplement fixation and isozyme e1ectrophoresis were the techniques around which much of the genetic work in ecology and evolution were once based. The next wave started with the development of recombinant DNA technology and centered around the use of restriction fragment length polymor phisms (RFLPs) and sequencing of DNAs cloned in bacteria. This technology was the first to actually examine and accumulate genetic information at the nucleotide level. The most recent wave of technology that we are currently experiencing is based on our ability to amplify DNA sequences enzymatically via the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Several techniques re1ated to PCR have been developed and used extensively in ecological and evolutionary studies.

Autorentext
Bruno Streit ist Professor am Institut für Ökologie, Evolution und Diversität. Er lehrt seit 1985 an der Universität Frankfurt am Main und ist Sprecher des Kompetenzverbunds Biodiversität Frankfurt (BioFrankfurt).

Inhalt
I: DNA fingerprinting and behavioral ecology.- Arbitrary primer mediated fingerprinting in plants: Case studies in plant breeding, taxonomy and phylogeny.- DNA amplification fingerprinting: A general tool with applications in breeding, identification and phylogenetic analysis of plants.- The analysis of simple repeat loci as applied in evolutionary and behavioral sciences.- Multilocus DNA fingerprinting and genetic relatedness in plants: A case study with banana and tomato.- Measuring reproductive success in insects.- Unravelling the components that underlie insect reproductive traits using a simple molecular approach.- Molecular analysis of kinship in birds: Interesting questions and useful techniques.- II: Population biology.- Molecular techniques in population genetics: A brief history.- Organization of genetic variation at the molecular level: Lessons from Drosophila.- The use of microsatellite analysis in population biology: Background, methods and potential applications.- The use of microsatellites for genetic analysis of natural populations.- PCR assays of variable nucleotide sites for identification of conservation units.- Concerted evolution and RAPping in mitochondrial VNTRs and the molecular geography of cricket populations.- Molecular markers and evolutionary processes in hermaphrodite freshwater snails.- Extinction and the formation of phylogenetic lineages: Diagnosing units of conservation management in the tiger beetle Cicindela dorsalis.- Perspective on conservation genetics.- III: Molecular systematics.- Advances in the theory and practice of DNA-hybridization as a systematic method.- Allozymes in mammalian population genetics and systematics: Indicative function of a marker system reconsidered.- Analysis of DNA from natural history museum collections.-Sources of ambiguity in nucleic acid sequence alignment.- Computational problems in molecular systematics.- The comparison of morphological and molecular data in phylogenetic systematics.- Non-coding chloroplast DNA for plant molecular systematics at the infrageneric level.- Developing model systems for molecular biogeography: Vicariance and interchange in marine invertebrates.- Bridging phylogenetics and population genetics with gene tree models.- IV: Speciation, development and genome organization.- The role of molecular genetics in speciation studies.- The origin and evolution of species differences in Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium.- The evolutionary ecology of Daphnia.- Diversity within diversity: Molecular approaches to studying microbial interactions with insects.- Evolutionary analysis of genes involved in early embryonic pattern formation in Drosophila.- Developmental genes and the origin and evolution of Metazoa.- To what extent does genetic information determine structural characteristics and document homologies?.- Evolution and multi-functionality of the chitin system.- Genome evolution: Between the nucleosome and the chromosome.- Individual genes underlying quantitative traits: Molecular and analytical methods.- Perspectives on future applications of experimental biology to evolution.