Motoo Kimura

Abstract

Motoo Kimura developed theory of population genetics, especially the stochastic processes and was devoted to the neutral theory. From a study of molecular evolution he concluded that most such evolution is driven by mutation and random drift rather than natural selection. This chapter discusses these two phases of his life. One of Kimura's most interesting discoveries was “quasi-linkage equilibrium,” in this state, the amount of linkage disequilibrium generated almost exactly cancels the epistatic variance. In 1968, Kimura presented his block-buster “neutral theory.” Kimura's first arguments were not very convincing, but at about the same time King and Jukes [King and Jukes, 1969] reached the same conclusion, this benefitted Kimura. Kimura was widely honored during his lifetime. He received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Chicago and Wisconsin. In the last decades of his life, defending the neutral theory became an obsession. Soon he was the best-known geneticist in Japan.