Applications of Supercomputers in Population Genetics

Background

The beginnings of genetics and of population genetics are one. Both started with Mendel; and were unrecognized until the rediscovery in 1900. That is in his simple genetics experiment wherein he considered the consequences of repeated self-fertilization; he showed that heterozygosity is reduced by half each generation and gave formulas for genotype frequencies in successive generations. This consequently led to the foundation of population genetics. The “golden age” of population genetics was the period when Haldane, Fisher, and Wright were producing their great work. That is, they reconciled biometry with genetics, quantified the approach to evolution, and created a totally new science. Thus, it is arguably the most successful mathematical theory in biology (Crow, 1987).