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Directional selection can be observed in finch beak size, peppered moth color, African cichlid mouth types, and sockeye salmon migration periods. If there is continuous allele frequency change as a result of directional selection generation from generation, there will be observable changes in the phenotypes of the entire population over time.
The McDonald–Kreitman test [1] is a statistical test often used by evolutionary and population biologists to detect and measure the amount of adaptive evolution within a species by determining whether adaptive evolution has occurred, and the proportion of substitutions that resulted from positive selection (also known as directional selection).
These charts depict the different types of genetic selection. On each graph, the x-axis variable is the type of phenotypic trait and the y-axis variable is the amount of organisms. Group A is the original population and Group B is the population after selection. Graph 1 shows directional selection, in which a single extreme phenotype is favored.
Even when an allele is selectively neutral, selection acting on nearby genes may also change its allele frequency through hitchhiking or background selection. While heterozygosity at a given locus decreases over time as alleles become fixed or lost in the population, variation is maintained in the population through new mutations and gene flow ...
The first and most common function to estimate fitness of a trait is linear ω =α +βz, which represents directional selection. [1] [10] The slope of the linear regression line (β) is the selection gradient, ω is the fitness of a trait value z, and α is the y-intercept of the fitness function.
Stabilizing selection (not to be confused with negative or purifying selection [1] [2]) is a type of natural selection in which the population mean stabilizes on a particular non-extreme trait value. This is thought to be the most common mechanism of action for natural selection because most traits do not appear to change drastically over time ...
The level of gene flow among populations can be estimated by observing the dispersal of individuals and recording their reproductive success. [4] [11] This direct method is only suitable for some types of organisms, more often indirect methods are used that infer gene flow by comparing allele frequencies among population samples.
Balancing selection refers to a number of selective processes by which multiple alleles (different versions of a gene) are actively maintained in the gene pool of a population at frequencies larger than expected from genetic drift alone. Balancing selection is rare compared to purifying selection. [1]