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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. [3]
The term natural selection is most often defined to operate on heritable traits, because these directly participate in evolution. However, natural selection is "blind" in the sense that changes in phenotype can give a reproductive advantage regardless of whether or not the trait is heritable.
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.
Disruptive selection is a specific type of natural selection that actively selects against the intermediate in a population, favoring both extremes of the spectrum. Disruptive selection is inferred to oftentimes lead to sympatric speciation through a phyletic gradualism mode of evolution. Disruptive selection can be caused or influenced by ...
In natural selection, negative selection [1] or purifying selection is the selective removal of alleles that are deleterious. This can result in stabilising selection through the purging of deleterious genetic polymorphisms that arise through random mutations.
A study of recent polygenic adaptation in the English has shown that selection on height has had small effects on allele frequencies (<1%) across most of the genome, and found evidence for polygenic adaptation in a wide variety of other traits as well including selection for increased infant birth size and increased female hip and waist size. [10]
Evolutionary pressure, selective pressure or selection pressure is exerted by factors that reduce or increase reproductive success in a portion of a population, driving natural selection. [1] It is a quantitative description of the amount of change occurring in processes investigated by evolutionary biology , but the formal concept is often ...
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]