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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 in a population due to random chance. [ 2 ] Genetic drift may cause gene variants to disappear completely and thereby reduce genetic variation . [ 3 ]
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 ...
Genetic variation is the difference in DNA among individuals [1] or the differences between populations among the same species. [2] The multiple sources of genetic variation include mutation and genetic recombination. [3] Mutations are the ultimate sources of genetic variation, but other mechanisms, such as genetic drift, contribute to it, as ...
Neutral mutation has become a part of the neutral theory of molecular evolution, proposed in the 1960s. This theory suggests that neutral mutations are responsible for a large portion of DNA sequence changes in a species. For example, bovine and human insulin, while differing in amino acid sequence are still able to perform the same function.
Appearance. In population genetics and population ecology, population size (usually denoted N) is a countable quantity representing the number of individual organisms in a population. Population size is directly associated with amount of genetic drift, and is the underlying cause of effects like population bottlenecks and the founder effect. [ 1 ]
Allele frequency. Allele frequency, or gene frequency, is the relative frequency of an allele (variant of a gene) at a particular locus in a population, expressed as a fraction or percentage. [1] Specifically, it is the fraction of all chromosomes in the population that carry that allele over the total population or sample size.
Genetic distance. 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.
Habitat fragmentation is associated with increases to genetic drift in small populations which can have negative consequences for the genetic diversity of the populations. [35] However, research suggests that some tree species may be resilient to the negative consequences of genetic drift until population size is as small as ten individuals or ...