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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 (allele) in a population due to random chance. [ 2 ] Genetic drift may cause gene variants to disappear completely and thereby reduce genetic variation. [ 3 ]
Population structure (also called genetic structure and population stratification) is the presence of a systematic difference in allele frequencies between subpopulations. In a randomly mating (or panmictic) population, allele frequencies are expected to be roughly similar between groups. However, mating tends to be non-random to some degree ...
In biology, evolution is the process of change in all forms of life over generations, and evolutionary biology is the study of how evolution occurs. Biological populations evolve through genetic changes that correspond to changes in the organisms ' observable traits. Genetic changes include mutations, which are caused by damage or replication ...
Figure 1: Genetic distance map by Cavalli-Sforza et al. (1994) [1] Genetic distance is a measure of the genetic divergence between species or between populations within a species, whether the distance measures time from common ancestor or degree of differentiation. [2] Populations with many similar alleles have small genetic distances. This ...
Fixed allele. In population genetics, a fixed allele is an allele that is the only variant that exists for that gene in a population. A fixed allele is homozygous for all members of the population. [1] The process by which alleles become fixed is called fixation. For this hypothetical species, the population in the topmost frame exhibits no ...
Isolation by distance (IBD) is a term used to refer to the accrual of local genetic variation under geographically limited dispersal. [1] The IBD model is useful for determining the distribution of gene frequencies over a geographic region. [2] Both dispersal variance and migration probabilities are variables in this model and both contribute ...
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) or lateral gene transfer (LGT) [ 1 ][ 2 ][ 3 ] is the movement of genetic material between organisms other than by the ("vertical") transmission of DNA from parent to offspring (reproduction). [ 4 ] HGT is an important factor in the evolution of many organisms. [ 5 ][ 6 ] HGT is influencing scientific ...
Genetic hitchhiking. Genetic hitchhiking, also called genetic draft or the hitchhiking effect, [1] is when an allele changes frequency not because it itself is under natural selection, but because it is near another gene that is undergoing a selective sweep and that is on the same DNA chain. When one gene goes through a selective sweep, any ...