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Heredity (2004) 93, 119121
& 2004 Nature Publishing Group All rights reserved 0018-067X/04 $30.00www.nature.com/hdyNEWS AND COMMENTARY...............................................................Douglas Scott Falconer (19132004)TFC Mackay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Heredity (2004) 93, 119121, advance online publication, 9 June 2004;
doi:10.1038/sj.hdy.6800506Douglas Falconers early work was
on linkage and genetic analyses of
major Mendelian mutations in
mice, including the discovery of the
first sex-linked mouse mutation (Falconer, 1952a). He continued this interest
throughout his career, publishing 17
papers on this topic. His major contributions, however, were in the area of
genetic analyses of quantitative traits,
for which variation is determined by
segregating alleles at multiple interacting loci with individually small effects,
and whose expression is contingent on
the environment. In particular, he is best
known for his work on response to
artificial selection in mice, the concept of
the cross-environment genetic correlation, development of the theory for
understanding the genetics of complex
human diseases in terms of an underlying continuous liability, and of course,
his highly acclaimed textbook, Introduction to Quantitative Genetics, first published in 1960.In order to understand the impact
of Douglas work and that of his
colleagues in the Agricultural Research
Council (ARC) Unit at Edinburgh, it is
necessary to cast our minds back to the
late 1940s and early 1950s and examine
the state of understanding of quantitative genetics at that time. Much of the
population and statistical genetic foundations had been laid by Fisher (1918),
Wright (1952), Haldane (1932) and
Mather (1949), while Lush (1937) developed the early applications to animal
breeding. However, there were many
unanswered theoretical and empirical
questions to be addressed. How effective is artificial selection in changing
mean values of a trait? For how long
does response to selection continue?
How closely do observed responses to
selection match theoretical predictions?
What deductions about the nature of
genetic variation can be made from
results of selection experiments? How
important is recombination and linkage
in patterning natural variation for quantitative traits and governing...