My PhD focused on genomics and bioinformatics, so when I moved into population genomics as a postdoc in Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra’s lab, I spent a lot of time strengthening my foundation in quantitative and population genetics, building on what I had learned at the Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics. This list collects the books, lecture notes and classic papers that helped me most. The two fields share the same roots: in the 1920s and 1930s, Fisher, Wright and Haldane reconciled Mendelian inheritance with Darwin’s natural selection, and their ideas still underpin how we map traits, estimate heritability and predict breeding values today. Population genetics explains how mutation, drift, selection and migration shape variation in genomes; quantitative genetics connects that variation to complex traits and is the statistical engine behind modern plant breeding, from mixed models to genomic selection. I have grouped the resources into quantitative genetics, population genetics and the classic texts, with links to free online versions where they exist.
Quantitative genetics#
- Bruce Walsh and Michael Lynch, Evolution and Selection of Quantitative Traits (Oxford University Press, 2018). Draft chapters were first posted on Bruce Walsh’s book page (archived copy).
- Introduction to Plant Quantitative Genetics, Tucson Winter Institute in Plant Breeding, 2013 (archived copy)
- Advanced Statistical Plant Breeding, Tucson Winter Institute in Plant Breeding, 2013 (archived copy)
- Mixed Models in Quantitative Genetics, 2012 workshop (archived copy)
- Rex Bernardo, Essentials of Plant Breeding and Breeding for Quantitative Traits in Plants (Stemma Press)
Population genetics#
- Graham Coop’s Population Genetics Notes
- John Gillespie, Population Genetics: A Concise Guide (2nd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004)
- Kent Holsinger’s Lecture Notes in Population Genetics
- Warren Ewens, Mathematical Population Genetics I: Theoretical Introduction (Springer, 2004)
- Joe Felsenstein, Theoretical Evolutionary Genetics (free online book)
- Genetic Simulation Resources, a catalogue of population genetics simulation software from the National Cancer Institute
Classic books#
- Charles Darwin, The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (1868)
- R.A. Fisher, The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection (1930; variorum edition, 1999)
- Sewall Wright, “Evolution in Mendelian Populations”, Genetics (1931)
- J.B.S. Haldane, The Causes of Evolution (1932)
- Theodosius Dobzhansky, Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937)
- G. Ledyard Stebbins, Variation and Evolution in Plants (1950)
Updated October 2026: links checked, and dead links replaced with publisher pages or archived copies.