Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The founder effect is a type of genetic drift, occurring when a small group in a population splinters off from the original population and forms a new one. The new colony may have less genetic variation than the original population, and through the random sampling of alleles during reproduction of subsequent generations, continue rapidly ...
Genetic drift, also known as random genetic drift, allelic drift or the Wright effect, [1] is the change in the frequency of an existing gene variant in a population due to random chance. [ 2 ] Genetic drift may cause gene variants to disappear completely and thereby reduce genetic variation . [ 3 ]
Population bottleneck followed by recovery or extinction. A population bottleneck or genetic bottleneck is a sharp reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events such as famines, earthquakes, floods, fires, disease, and droughts; or human activities such as genocide, speciocide, widespread violence or intentional culling.
The founder effect occurs when few individuals from a larger population establish a new population and also decreases the genetic diversity, and was originally outlined by Ernst Mayr. [4] The founder effect is a unique case of genetic drift, as the smaller founding population has decreased genetic diversity that will move alleles within the ...
Whether genetic drift is a minor or major contributor to speciation is the subject of much ongoing discussion. [ 5 ] Rapid sympatric speciation can take place through polyploidy , such as by doubling of chromosome number; the result is progeny which are immediately reproductively isolated from the parent population.
Population structure commonly arises from physical separation by distance or barriers, like mountains and rivers, followed by genetic drift. Other causes include gene flow from migrations, population bottlenecks and expansions, founder effects, evolutionary pressure, random chance, and (in humans) cultural factors. Even in lieu of these factors ...
The effect of genetic drift is larger for alleles present in few copies than when an allele is present in many copies. The population genetics of genetic drift are described using either branching processes or a diffusion equation describing changes in allele frequency. [ 43 ]
The founder effect is based on models that suggest peripatric speciation can occur by the interaction of selection and genetic drift, [1]: 106 which may play a significant role. [7] Mayr first conceived of the idea by his observations of kingfisher populations in New Guinea and its surrounding islands.