An overview of the Weitzman approach to diversity

The diversity of a set of breeds or species is defined in the Weitzman approach by a recursion formula using the pairwise genetic distances between the elements of the set. The algorithm for computing the diversity function of Weitzman is described. It also provides a taxonomy of the set which is interpreted as the maximum likelihood phylogeny. The theory is illustrated by an application to 19 European tattle breeds. The possible uses of the method for defining optimal conservation strategies are briefly discussed. (C) Inra/Elsevier, Paris.