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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]
Nevertheless, the concept is still widely used in evolutionary genetics, e.g. to explain the persistence of deleterious alleles as in the case of spinal muscular atrophy, [5] [4] or, in theoretical models, mutation-selection balance can appear in a variety of ways and has even been applied to beneficial mutations (i.e. balance between selective ...
Tajima's D is a population genetic test statistic created by and named after the Japanese researcher Fumio Tajima. [1] Tajima's D is computed as the difference between two measures of genetic diversity: the mean number of pairwise differences and the number of segregating sites, each scaled so that they are expected to be the same in a neutrally evolving population of constant size.
In negative frequency-dependent selection, the fitness of a phenotype or genotype decreases as it becomes more common. This is an example of balancing selection. More generally, frequency-dependent selection includes when biological interactions make an individual's fitness depend on the frequencies of other phenotypes or genotypes in the ...
A genetic polymorphism means that different forms of particular genes, and hence of the proteins that they produce, are co-existing within a species. Selectionists claimed that such polymorphisms are maintained by balancing selection, while neutralists view the variation of a protein as a transient phase of molecular evolution. [1]
This can result in stabilising selection through the purging of deleterious genetic polymorphisms that arise through random mutations. [2] [3] Purging of deleterious alleles can be achieved on the population genetics level, with as little as a single point mutation being the unit of selection. In such a case, carriers of the harmful point ...
In population genetics, directional selection is a type of natural selection in which one extreme phenotype is favored over both the other extreme and moderate phenotypes. This genetic selection causes the allele frequency to shift toward the chosen extreme over time as allele ratios change from generation to generation.
In genetics, the K a /K s ratio, also known as ω or d N /d S ratio, [a] is used to estimate the balance between neutral mutations, purifying selection and beneficial mutations acting on a set of homologous protein-coding genes.